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Ellina Mhlanga, Harare Bureau
NEW Tennis Zimbabwe president Biggie Magarira has said junior development is the way to go if there is going to be continuity in the sport.
Magarira, who has been the national association’s acting president since February this year after the then president Martin Lock resigned, was unopposed in the elections held during the TZ’s general meeting over the weekend at Harare Sports Club.
He will be deputised by Collins Mahere.
Glory Gijima, Vincent Nyatoti and Josephine Midzi came in as the executive members. The fourth executive member will be co-opted in due course as well as the association’s treasurer.
Most of the new executive members were unopposed in Saturday’s general meeting except for Mehere, who got two more votes than Gijima for the vice-president’s post.
Magarira said there is need to have strong junior development structures to close the gap between the upcoming and seasoned players.
“I think we have to go back to the basics of tennis which is junior development. There is a lot of talent in Zimbabwe, which is not being tapped into because we have lost that touch of junior development.
“Look at what happened with the Black brothers (Byron and Wayne) and (their sister) Cara when they left, we were left with a huge void.
“My challenge is to make sure we go back to junior development. It only comes through provinces… identifying talent, junior players, have provincial squads that will fit into the national squads and then have the seeding system.
“That’s my main focus for now and obviously to make tennis more visible and to get more sponsors,” said Magarira.
Magarira said they would convene an executive meeting soon to come up with their 2020 strategy.
“I am going to call for our first executive meeting to brain storm and come up with a strategy for 2020, which will be our blueprint.
“I am glad to have new people coming in and I am happy to have Mahere, he brings in a lot of wealth in terms of experience. He has been the Harare chairman, so he is bringing in a lot of knowledge. We have Josephine Midzi, Glory Gijima, who has been with Bulawayo Metropolitan, and Vincent Nyatoti, he was a board member before he was re-elected.”
As they prepare to wrap-up their 2019 events, the TZ president said although it was a tough year, they are pleased they managed to fulfill all the tournaments and activities on their calendar and is optimistic of 2020.
Some of the major events lined-up for next year include the Davis Cup World Group II play-offs tie against Syria, Zimbabwe’s return to the Fed Cup and several junior local, regional and international tournaments.
“2019 was pretty tough but we managed to get through it. We managed to fulfil our fixture in the Davis Cup, ITF tournaments, namely the Futures, we have two courtesy of Old Mutual sponsored. Then we have the ITF 18s in Bulawayo the grade five, then three in Harare, two grade fours and one grade three which were all successful.
“We also had the CAT tournament for the Under-12s and Under-14s and the boys did quite well, they went for the Africa Championships… We participated in the zonals. We also had training workshops, tomorrow (today) we have a Level Three coaching course and it’s running for the next two weeks,” said Magarira.
The course, running until December 8, is expected to feature coaches from several Southern African countries and Zimbabwe have six coaches attending.
ITF expert Riaan Kruger, Andre de Beer and Freeman Nyamunokora will be in charge of the coaching course, which is the highest certification for tennis coaches.
Online Reporter