Fynn carries Zim hopes at ITF Futures tourney

MARK Fynn carries Zimbabwe’s expectations in the Twenty Third Century Systems Futures Tournament which got underway yesterday at Harare Sports Club’s hard outdoor court with the qualifiers for the main draw.
According to the tournament’s acceptance list, the 29-year-old Fynn is a member of the Zimbabwe Davis Cup team, is ranked 994 on the ITF professional circuit and is based in Turkey. Fynn is the only Zimbabwean among the 20 players who got a direct entry into the tournament.

At the last tournament at the same venue two years ago, Fynn bowed out at the quarter-final stage. Other Zimbabweans, Tinashe Chikanda, Moses Matanga, Luca Picci and Tinotenda Chanakira are playing in the qualifying round which has 22 players.

Clifford Nhokwara, the tournament director revealed that from the qualifying round for the main draw which started yesterday and concludes today they were looking for eight players with four local promising players to be given a wild card entry to complete the main draw of 32 players.

The singles main draw runs from tomorrow up to Saturday while the main draw for the doubles where 16 pairs are expected is scheduled for Tuesday to Friday.

Boy Westerhof from Netherlands is the highest ranked entrant at number 256 on the ITF list, while his countryman Antal van de Duim is the second best player at number 295.

South Africa have the highest number of players assured of a place in the main draw with six. These include Keith-Patrick Crowley, the runner-up at the 2012 edition of the same tournament which was won by United States of America based Zimbabwean Takanyi Garanganga.

With a total prize money of $15 000, the prize structure is going to be determined by South African Anton Rens, the ITF tournament supervisor.

The Twenty Third Century financially backed event is going to be closely followed by the NetOne Futures Tournament at the same venue which runs from 20 to 25 October which also has $15 000 set aside for prize money. Entries for the NetOne Futures tournament closed on 3 October while players who wished to pull out of the event had had up to last Tuesday to do so.