Three ITF Futures on the cards

Ellina Mhlanga Sports Reporter
LOCAL tennis players and fans are in for a treat with three International Tennis Federation Futures tournaments lined up for Harare Sports Club between June and July.

The Futures events have become a permanent feature on Tennis Zimbabwe’s calendar since the country resumed hosting the tournaments in 2012.

They had last hosted the events in 2005 due to economic challenges.

Last year, the national association hosted the same number of tournaments with a prize money of $10 000.

But the international federation have since increased the prize to $15 000.

The first event will run from June 12 to 18, the second from June 19 to 25 and the last event from June 26 to July 2.

TZ administrator, Cliff Nhokwara, said with the events already on the ITF calendar, they are now finalising on the sponsorship packages with their traditional sponsors Old Mutual.

“We have submitted our proposal, we are finalising with the sponsor.

“It’s still Old Mutual. Administratively we have secured the dates, they are already on the ITF calendar.

“They are now $15 000-tournaments, there are no longer $10 000-tournaments.

“It’s to try and spread the prize money to players, they are trying to give more money to upcoming players, to subsidise their travelling and accommodation costs,” said Nhokwara.

He said after a big turnout for qualifying rounds last year they have changed the draw for this year from 32 to 48 to accommodate more players.

“In fact at entry level players compete for more points than for money and certainly we will have a lot of players coming.

“We have changed the draw for the qualifiers from 32 to 48 because last year we had a lot of players in the qualifiers whom we could not accommodate. So we are trying to accommodate more players,” Nhokwara said.

The national association is hoping to have come up with the Davis Cup team by then and hopefully they would use the three events to build-up towards the tournament in Egypt in July.

Zimbabwe will be out to regain their place in the Euro/Africa Group II after they were relegated to Africa Zone Group III following their defeat to Finland and Georgia.

“We would want our players going for the Davis Cup to come. So the Futures are taken as part of warm-up to the Davis Cup,” Nhokwara said.

Entries are already open for the first tournament.