adminEllina Mhlanga
Sports Reporter
AFTER a largely quiet year because of the Covid-19 pandemic, Tennis Zimbabwe president Biggie Magarira says they are staying positive ahead of 2021 as they are among 32 sport codes that have so far been allowed to resume their activities by the Sports Commission.
Tennis was among the sport codes that got clearance to resume training some months back before they returned to competition. They have had a few local events, mainly the club championships.
Last week they staged their first international tournament in Bulawayo before moving to Harare. Zimbabwe usually host four international events for the juniors – one Under-18 event in Bulawayo early in the year and three events in August in Harare.
However, this year the tournaments had to be shifted following the coronavirus outbreak and instead of the three events, Harare is hosting two this time around.
And the first International Tennis Federation World Tennis Tour, Juniors tournament in Harare is set to end today with Zimbabwe’s Ethan Sibanda taking on fifth seed Itay Bity from Israel in the final at Harare Sports Club.
Sibanda, seeded second, dismissed Great Britain’s William Jansen 6-4, 6-4 in the semi-finals yesterday while Bity beat Aayush Bhat 6-4, 6-3 in the other match.
After sailing through a tough second round match against Sweden’s Kevin Edengren on Wednesday, Sibanda said he was looking forward to going all the way to the finals and yesterday he lived up to that, progressing to the finals.
“After this win I think I am going to be in the final because it’s a tough win for me, so I need to progress a bit more and go to the semis or finals,” said Sibanda.
Russia’s Arina Valitova has a date with Darja Suvirdjonkova from Serbia in the girls finals.
But it is the hosting of these junior events that have also spurred TZ’s hopes ahead of next year with Magarira declaring they expect more events at home in the coming year. Zimbabwe is looking at competing in the Billie Jean King Cup (formerly Fed Cup) next year after more than a decade away from the competition. The event is the premier international women’s tennis team competition. It is scheduled to take place at SEB Arena in Vilnius, Lithuania, on a date yet to be announced after it was postponed to next year. And Zimbabwe is among the 28 countries to take part in the Europe/Africa Group III.
“Going into 2021 we are going to have more tournaments. We had to move it because of the coronavirus and with the success and a huge turnout in Bulawayo, it gives us more energy to apply for more tournaments to be hosted in March in Bulawayo next year.
“The good news as well, we entered the Fed Cup, now it’s called Billy Jean Cup, so our ladies team will travel to Lithuania. We are just waiting for the dates now to come from ITF (International Tennis Federation).
“For the girls out there, they should start preparing and working hard so that they can fit into the squad. So the selectors will start doing their job, identifying talent.
“It’s quite a big step which we decided to take because our girls here after junior tennis they had nothing to look forward to, and also there has been a big push from ITF on the all advantage (campaign) where we need to empower girls and women on the field and also in administration,” Magarira said.
It will be a busy year for the national association who are set to host the rescheduled Davis Cup tie against China in March.
“In March we have Davis Cup, so we have already started working with the Sports Commission. We have approached them they are going to be part of our team to help us host this tournament. It’s going to be a huge tournament because we are playing China. We have to make sure we host it successfully.
“This year it’s unfortunate we couldn’t have the Futures tournament (ITF World Tennis Tour events) and we couldn’t find anywhere to fit them because of Covid-19.
Next year, if funds permit, we want to have them for both women and men. So definitely we are looking at that as well,” noted Magarira.
Online Reporter