Tapfuma in good start

match of the tournament when he beat Chrisitiaan Lagrange of South Africa at Harare Sports Club yesterday.
Tapfuma, who received a bye in the first round on Monday when the tournament started, beat Lagrange 6-3, 6-1 to progress to the next round.
Seventh seed, Innocent Mhere, outclassed Francois Kellerman of South Africa 6-0, 6-0 while another Zimbabwean player Ronzai Saurombe overpowered South Africa’s Rayne Roselt 6-0, 6-0.
Courtney Lock beat Joshua Chetty 6-2, 6-3.
However, it was a different story for Tadiwa Mberi as he lost 6-0, 6-3 to Joshua Luck from South Africa and Tinotenda Alufeyo was beaten 6-3, 5-7, 7-5 by Umaru Balami.
Taremeredzwa Mariga fell to Gibralel Teja of Kenya 7-6, (11), 6-4 in his second match having won on Monday.
Second seed Matthew Rossouw of South Africa thumped Innocent Tidimane of Botswana 6-0, 6-1.
In the girls’ category, top seed Valeria Bhunu lived up to expectations when she overcame Damaris Kangai Musera of Kenya 6-3, 6-2 in her opening match.
The 16 year-old said she is hoping to do well in the tournament having won the second leg in Namibia last month.
“I want to take one match at a time and play my best. Today’s (yesterday) match was good, I was still trying to adjust to the court.
“The competition has been really good since we started and in South Africa I lost in quarter-finals, the conditions were pretty harsh,
“In Namibia I played well and I felt good for winning,” said Bhunu.
Pauline Chawafambia, who is the second seed, also had a good day in the court when she beat Alison Sandes of South Africa 3-6, 6-4, 7-5 while Nicole Dzenga overpowered Vimbai Ugaro 6-2, 6-2.
Tennis Zimbabwe administrator Cliff Nhokwara said the competition started on a good note although some of the top players from other countries withdrew from the event.
“We had a good start, we haven’t been doing this for a long time.
“It was bound to be that we will have withdrawals because this (tournament) has been going on since last month.
“Most entries from Europe could not make it to Zimbabwe but we have requested for another tournament to the ITF. Hopefully we will be allowed to host it this year and we certainly expect to have more entries,” said Nhokwara.