Huge attendance at Bulawayo tennis open

Brandon Moyo, Sports Reporter

THERE was a large turnout at the 2023 Bulawayo Open Tennis Championship that was held at Bulawayo Athletic Club (BAC) on Friday.

Graced by all Bulawayo academies, the tournament had players from other provinces and also some from Botswana. A total of 175 participants took part in one of the prestigious tournaments in the country.

Apart from the large numbers taking part in the championship, the tournament also served as preparation for the International Tennis Federation (ITF) Under-18s which will take place in Botswana.

“We are happy with the quality of tennis that is coming up, especially the little ones, we had more numbers which show that there is development going on. We had 175 players despite the fact that many had gone to Namibia for ITF,” said tournament director, Thesly Mufunda. He said competing regularly will help the youngsters grow their sport.

The youngsters will soon compete in the Midlands Open in Kwekwe before going to Mutare and Harare.

“We will be having ITFs here in Bulawayo next month and we hope to see these players playing against some international players,” said Mufunda.

**Tarryn-Leigh de Souza memorial tennis tournament winners**

The tournament came after the completion of the Tarryn-Leigh De Souza Junior Memorial Tennis Tournament which also took place at BAC. The tournament is meant to celebrate the life of De Souza, one of the best players to come out of Bulawayo who died in 2009 due to heart failure. Tarryn-Leigh represented Matabeleland and Zimbabwe in a number of tournaments at the age of 18 when she was ranked third in the country. She won a scholarship to play and study at Oklahoma Christian University in the United States in 2003 and at the time she was one of the top female players in the country.

Bulawayo Open Winners

Red ball girls – Tesia Sithole

Runner up – Annastacia Chirombe

Red ball boys – Raphael Zambara

Runner up – Roland Khanye

Orange girl – Jacquelin Mpofu

Runner up – Kayla Muchemwa

Orange boys – Anenyasha Chinzvende

Runner up – Ashton Mandiudza

Green girls – Princess Dube

Runner up – Isabella Kangai

Green boys – Adynel Mware