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Brandon Moyo, Sports Reporter
EMAKHANDENI Tennis Club’s rising star player, Isaac Nyoni was selected to represent Zimbabwe in the Zonal Championships which are scheduled for January 6-10 at Harare Sports Club.
Nyoni will be the only player from his club that will be representing Zimbabwe in the event which is also known as the Junior Africa Tennis Championships.
The 13-year old Nyoni was selected to partake in the prestigious regional tournament after doing well in national events in Masvingo, Mutare and Bulawayo. His coach at Emakhandeni Tennis Club, Witness Jiyane said the young Nyoni’s achievement is proof of how good the club is and is a good thing for the city.
“It’s a good achievement for the club and Bulawayo province at large, it’s also an indication that our club is one of the best in Zimbabwe,” said Jiyane.
Nyoni will not be the first player from the club to make the team that will represent Zimbabwe at international tournaments. He will be the third after Zamani Moyo in 2016 and Adrien Mudzire, the highest ranked Under-12 player in the country, who also represented Zimbabwe at the Africa Junior Championships in Mozambique. All the players made the national cut since Jiyane took over in 2014. Moyo is now at Howard University in the United States on a tennis scholarship.
With the youngster being the leader of his team, Jiyane believes his national team call up will be motivation enough for the other players to follow suit and they are hoping to widen their pool of young up and coming tennis players.
“As a club captain, more players will definitely emulate his footsteps. Our plans are to cast our net deeper and wider in terms of tennis development and talent identification, targeting mostly high-density areas and few peri-urban and rural areas,” said Jiyane.
Jiyane also thanked some of their sponsors which facilitated the players’ trips to participate in national tournaments such as Qoki Zindlovukazi and fast-food outlet, Chicken Inn.
“Credit to Qoki Zindlovukazi for subsidising trips to Mutare, Harare and Gweru and also Chicken Inn for sponsorship during our stay,” he said.
At the moment, the club has a development programme with Charleston Trust Primary School which, in one year, has produced positive results with some of their students winning medals in national tournaments.
As the hosts, Zimbabwe were given six slots per age group in the tennis tournament, which comes in two formats, the individual and team competitions. — @brandon_malvin.
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