Lock, Quattara through to ITF final

Ellina Mhlanga Sports Reporter
THE last event of the three International Tennis Federation 18-and-Under South Central Circuit reached day three with Zimbabwe’s Courtney Lock and his partner Gueninhle Abdoul Karir Quattara winning their tie.
They defeated the pair of Gnana Bhaskar Paramatmuni Venkata and Innocent Tidimane in yesterday’s semi-finals at Harare Sports Club.
Lock and Quattara beat Paramatmuni Venkata of India and Tidimane of Botswana 6-4, 6-4 to storm into the finals.

This is the third event of the three tournaments being hosted by Zimbabwe since last month and Lock and his partner, Quattara, will be hoping to defend their title after winning the doubles finals in the last two events.

They will take on Damon Kesaris and Rhys Milne who overpowered Uladzimir Dorash and Sai Nikhil Mannepalli 6-3, 6-1 in the other semi-final.
In the singles matches Lock, who started on a promising note reaching the semi-finals in the first event, lost in the first round in this tournament.

In the girls section Nicole Dzenga and her South African partner, Theresa Alison Van Zyl, beat South Africa’s Lee Barnard and Zani Barnard 6-2, 2-6, 12-10 to also book their place in today’s final.

Most of the Zimbabwean players were eliminated in the first in the singles matches with Tadiwa Chinamo and Ngoni Makambwa being the only players who reached the second round in the boys category.

Rufaro Chirewa was the only local player to reach the second round in the girls section.
Tennis Zimbabwe administrator, Cliff Nhokwara said what they have seen so far in this tournament is an indicator of where Zimbabwe is in terms of competition and what needs to be done for local players to match the standard of their counterparts.

“It would have been nice if we had more Zimbabweans but the depth of the event was quite deep and it also reflects on how much we need to do to catch up with what our neighbours in South Africa are doing.

“South Africa and Egypt are dominating and we are not very far away other than the fear or mental limitation that’s probably hindering our players when they are playing the South Africans and Egyptians.”