Tennis ace Mahachi dreams big

By Mbachi Mutukula-Maregere
HE is inspired by the success of international tennis icons like Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer and the Black brothers, Wayne and Byron, who rose from Harare to dance with the superstars.
The budding teenage star believes he will be able to emulate his idols on the professional arena.
His name is Tafadzwa Mahachi.
He believes he will become Zimbabwe’s super hero in tennis and dreams of turning into the country’s best player.
Mahachi was the top seed at the “Mim Du Toit” Under-15 boys’ tournament last October and he is one of the best tennis players at Prince Edward School.
Prince Edward are the defending champions on the schools’ tennis league and the “Mim Du Toit” tournament after dismissing St George’s College in the final on an overall score of 10-2.
“We are very happy with our achievements, I hope we will be able to hold on to the cup. It feels so good to be the top in the league,” said Mahachi.
The young athlete started playing tennis at Churchill in 2008. When the school held a friendly game against Prince Edward, Lincent Chitiyo, the head coach at Prince Edward, noticed his talent.
Chitiyo invited him to his tennis academy.
“I was doing Form Two when I joined the academy and I got the support from coach Chitiyo,” said Mahachi.
“My mum used to play tennis during her school time in the 80s and so she really inspired me and taught me the basics.
“The doors to my favourite sport started opening slowly and by August 2008 I was selected to represent Harare Province at the Inter-provincials in Bulawayo where we played well as a team but we lost in the finals to Manicaland.”
Mahachi was selected for the Zimbabwe Schools Under-16 team that represented the country in South Africa in 2009.
In April that same year, he played at the Harare Open and also the Zimbabwe Open.
He lost in the quarter-finals in both tournaments.
The athlete was again selected to play at the inter-provincials where they lost against Manicaland in the final.
Mahachi also took part at the Astra Paints tournament and won two out of three matches.
Another door opened for Mahachi as he was selected for the Under-19 Zimbabwe schools’ team.
“I was very happy to be selected again in the Zimbabwe schools team and, although we lost our last match against South Africa, we had a good time and we improved,” said Mahachi.
Last year, Mahachi took part in the Harare Open and won in the doubles before taking part in the Zimbabwe Open where he won in the doubles and lost in the final of the singles.
The young athlete wrote his O’ Levels last year, in June, and he has already enrolled for Lower Sixth at Prince Edward School.
In last year’s schools league he won all the matches he played. Mahachi also played in the clubs league and did very well. Born in 1994, he is the first born and the only boy in a family of three.