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Ellina Mhlanga Sports Reporter
SECOND seed in the boys singles Benedict Badza booked his place in the second round of the Cranrid ITF World Tennis Tour Juniors by beating Tarun Korwar in the first round at Harare Sports Club yesterday.
The first round matches were played over two days — Monday and yesterday.
Badza secured his place in the second round when he beat Korwar from India in straight sets 6-3, 6-3.
Another Zimbabwean player who remains on course in the boys singles is Thompson Thomu, who dismissed Ashley Hunter of Great Britain 6-0, 6-1.
In the girls singles, Tanyaradzwa Midzi, seeded third, also had a positive start to the tournament when she dismissed Raja Sarvagnya Kilaru of India 6-2, 6-2 to proceed to the second round.
Midzi will be joined by Tanaka Garikai, who also advanced to the second round when she beat Mia Leshem of South Africa 2-6, 7-5, 6-3 in a match that had to be decided in the third set.
Garikai admitted to letting complacency creep in during the first set but was excited to have managed to turn the result in her favour.
“It was a tough match, especially for the first set where I started 1-0 up and then I started to lose and I ended up losing 6-2, which was quite a blow. But I tried to persevere and second set I won. And then in the third set I just tried to finish it off with a bang.
“I think it was being complacent because well I realised I won one game and I started to think it’s easy, so I just started to drop my play a bit until I realised that it was too late to pick it up again,” said Garikai. While the quartet of Badza, Thomu, Midzi and Garikai sailed through to the next round, most local players bowed out in the first round, including Tadiwanashe Mauchi, who is one of the leading juniors. Mauchi, seeded fifth, lost 3-6, 3-6 to Japan’s Yu Kikawa.
However, she said despite the loss, she is excited to be back on the court after missing some tournaments due to a back injury.
Online Reporter