adminEllina Mhlanga Sports Reporter
MARTIN DZUWA will lead the Davis Cup team again this year in their bid to regain promotion into the Europe/Africa Zone Group II after he was retained as the captain.
Zimbabwe were relegated into the Africa Zone Group III last year after losing both their ties against Finland and Georgia.
They will be chasing a quick return to Group II when they travel to Cairo, Egypt for the Africa Group III tournament with 15 countries expected to battle it out for the two promotional tickets from July 17 to 22.
Dzuwa will be in charge of the team that is largely unchanged with Zimbabwe retaining the bulk of the Davis Cup members that have been representing the country since promotion into Group II in 2014.
The squad is made up of Takanyi Garanganga, the Lock brothers — Benjamin and Courtney — Mehluli Sibanda, who is the country’s top junior player, Ronzai Saurombe and Tadiwa Chinamo.
Sibanda travelled with the team to Georgia last year.
Dzuwa believes they can bounce back considering their spirited efforts during last year’s campaign although they could not have their key players, Benjamin and Garanganga for the two ties.
Benjamin missed the first tie against Finland while Garanganga was not available for the second one against Georgia. “It’s good to be selected again to lead the team. Of course I would want to take the team further. I want to go further and do better.
“I am looking forward to going (back) to Europe/Africa Group II. It’s tough whenever you are playing for promotion because everyone is looking forward to that.
“It’s tough, but we have good chances. I think we will be ranked better. So we will be the team to beat. Like if you look at last year, we did not have the full team for the two ties.
“If we had both players (Benjamin and Garanganga) at the same time I think we would have stayed (in Group II),” Dzuwa said.
Dzuwa said the fact that they have juniors like Sibanda and Chinamo in the squad is a positive move to try and promote continuity for the team.
“So it’s quite an interesting team. We have juniors as part of the team, the gaps in the team won’t be too big,” said Dzuwa.
Mark Fynn is the only player that has been dropped from the squad. But TZ convener of selectors, Tanya Chinamo, said they will keep reviewing the squad since the final team will be named 10-days before the tournament begins.
“We have selected our team, but obviously, like I said the thing is to introduce new blood into the team. That’s why we always got our top junior Mehluli.
“Mark is still in our periphery because he is still playing professionally, so we keep following the progress on how the team develops. We have got 10 days before the tie, to choose our team. We will keep reviewing,” said Chinamo.
The national association are looking forward to hosting three International Tennis Federation Futures events between June and July. And they are hoping it will be part of the team’s preparations as well as a platform to finalise the actual team for the Davis Cup.
Online Reporter