Tennis coach urges more support for juniors

Sports Reporter

TENNIS coach Farayi Tapfuma has appealed for more support to ensure continued exposure of young and upcoming players to high level tennis competitions.

This comes after Zimbabwe’s participation at the ITF/CAT 12-and-Under African Junior Teams Competition that ended on Sunday in Casablanca, Morocco.

The tournament featured boys and girls.

Zimbabwe were represented in both categories, with the boys’ team consisting of Muchengeti Manzungu, Unathi Sithole and Munenyasha Mhlanga while the girls’ side was made up of Emmly George, Rutendo Tom and Claire Majeye.

In the girls’ section, Zimbabwe were placed fourth overall, behind Tunisia, South Africa and hosts Morocco.

There were nine countries that competed in the girls’ category.

In the boys’ category, Zimbabwe finished sixth out of 11 countries that took part in this section. Morocco were the eventual winners, with Tunisia coming in second place and South Africa third. Nigeria and Algeria were fourth and fifth respectively.

The girls’ team reached the semi-finals after coming second in Group Two behind Morocco. They lost 2-0 to Tunisia in the last four.

They then faced Morocco in the third and fourth place tie and were defeated 2-1 by Morocco, settling for fourth position. Going into the tournament, Tapfuma said they were hoping to make the top five for the girls and top eight for the boys.

“I am happy with the performance showcased though we could have done better. It’s good we have managed the targets we had settled for.

“The girls could have done better but it was difficult considering that they were playing the home team, they were overwhelmed by the support and the home advantage,” said Tapfuma.

The girls’ team qualified for the continental event when they came second at the ITF/CAT Southern Africa 12-and-Under team competition held in Mozambique in July, while the boys received a wildcard after they missed qualification at the same regional event.

The week-long tournament attracted boys and girls’ teams from Algeria, Benin, Botswana, Equatorial Guinea, Libya, Guinea, Kenya, Morocco, Namibia, Nigeria, Tunisia, South Africa and Zimbabwe.