Davis Cup team falls in Finland

Brighton Zhawi
THE Zimbabwe Davis Cup team lost their Euro/Africa Group II tie against Finland yesterday with two reverse singles matches still to go.
This was after the Zimbabwe pair of Mark Fynn (31) and 19-year-old Courtney Lock were beaten 1-6, 0-6 and 1-6 in a must-win clash against the hosts’ pairing of Henri Kontinen and Jarkko Nieminen.
The win gave Finland an unassailable 3-0 heading into today’s reverse singles.
Zimbabwe’s top seed Takanyi Garanganga and Lock had earlier lost their singles matches on the opening day.
Takanyi agonisingly fell in five sets to Harri Haliovaara (6-3, 3-6, 6-4, 4-6 and 4-6) to Harri Haliovaara, while Lock was convincingly beaten 0-6 0-6 0-6 by Nieminen.
Garanganga will now play Nieminen while Lock will face off with Haliovarra in today’s reverse singles, looking to salvage some pride as the team now has to play yet another relegation play-off tie, this time against Georgia.
The absence of Zimbabwe’s number two player Ben Lock due to college commitments proved to be a big blow to the side that has failed to be competitive against European opposition in recent times.