Tongoona upbeat

Brighton Zhawi

ZIMBABWE Davis Cup captain Gwinyai Tongoona is a reasonable man.

In fact; the 45-year-old hardly ever places any outrageous demands on his charges, except ‘play well and exert pressure on your opponents’.

That is the message, Tongoona sent out to his boys in the lead up to next week’s Europe/Africa group II Davis Cup against Romania. The Zimbabwe Davis Cup captain will link up with his charges in Piatra Neamt for the clash slated for April 5-6.

Takanyi Garanganga ranked 450 in singles, Benjamin Lock (547), Mehluli Sibanda (no ranking) and Courtney Lock (ranked 686 in doubles) make up team Zimbabwe.

Garanganga and the Lock brothers have been playing tournaments in the USA while Sibanda was in Egypt. “They are professionals, they have been active and they understand their game.

“So what is important now is to play well, perform well and put the home team under pressure,” Tongoona said.

Zimbabwe lost 1-4 to Poland in their previous away tie last April and so did Romania who went down 2-3 also to the Polish team in a Europe/ Africa group II third round tie last September.

“This is a different tie all together, of course Poland are a very strong side with some top players.

“Romania are also good and they have home advantage, but I feel we are in a good position to compete,” he said.

Romania are ranked 42 in the world, 19 places above Zimbabwe and their team comprises of Dragos Dima ranked 330 in singles, Filip Cristian Jianu (no ranking), Marius Copil (73rd in singles) and Horia Tecau ranked 31 in doubles.

This will be Zimbabwe’s second meeting with Romania; after their only ever meeting saw the Europeans win 3-2, back in 2000. That match was played in Zimbabwe, and Tongoona will be hoping for a total reversal of fortunes this time around.

The Davis Cup will continue using the new format introduced in 2018; where ties comprise four singles rubbers and one doubles rubber.

All matches will be played over the course of two days.