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Ray Bande
Senior Reporter
MORE girls than boys are now taking part in the game of tennis in Mutare in a development that reflects gender parity in minority sporting codes.
In an interview on the sidelines of the commissioning of the Mantas Tennis Academy tennis courts at Mutare Girls’ High recently, honourary Tennis Zimbabwe (TZ) president and the academy founder, Ann Martin, confirmed that they now have more girls than boys participating in tennis age group competitions.
“The refurbishment of the courts is a ongoing programme which is part of the developmental project we have been undertaking as Mantas since way back.
“When we started back then we only had four girls on board, but we have witnessed an increase to the current set up where we have more girls than boys in our age group training sessions and competitions,” said the veteran tennis administrator and benefactor.
In a separate interview during the same function, TZ president, Biggie Magarira, commended structures in Manicaland for spearheading the development of the game.
“As TZ we are grateful to the structures on the ground in Manicaland.
“It is good to see such world-class courts being commissioned in Mutare. This is one of the pillars of a robust development programme that TZ is pursuing.
“We hope we will have more kids coming through to play tennis in these courts and possibly pursue the game as a career. We have seen how the game has transformed lives.
“We now have many players undertaking the game at professional level and participating in competitions abroad in countries such as United States of America or France,” he said.
Magarira said they are aiming to host 15 International Tennis Federation (ITF) tournaments in a major boost for local players’ careers.
ITF rated tournaments come in handy for local tennis players who were badly underexposed due to limited number of international competitions they partook in.
Only three tournaments under the ITF banner were traditionally hosted by Zimbabwe which later increased to four – two in Bulawayo and the remainder in Harare.
“As president of Tennis Zimbabwe, I am working hard to bring more tournaments to our players here in Zimbabwe. It is quite expensive to travel outside the country to look for more game time and points. So if we bring more ITFs to Zimbabwe it means more of our kids who cannot travel can play in these tournaments.
“We are glad that we have gained trust from ITF and they have given us more tournaments to host this year despite these Covid-19 challenges. We used to have three tournaments and they were increased to four. We have increased them to nine this year. Our target is to have up to 15 ITF rated competitions by the end of next year,” said the TZ president.
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