TZ pleased with local players’ showing in ITF events

Sports Reporter

TENNIS Zimbabwe national junior tennis initiative and technical development officer, Linsent Chitiyo, says they are content with the display by their players at the just-ended ITF events at Harare Sport Club.

Zimbabwe hosted three tournaments – one J60 and two J100 events – in the last three weeks.

The tournaments, which began at the end of July, ended over the weekend, at Harare Sports Club.

They are part of the ITF World Tennis Tour Juniors and give players, aged 18 and under, the opportunity to travel the world and develop their talent.

The local players performed better in the first two events but found the going tough in the last tournament that ended over the weekend.

“From the association’s point of view, we are grateful and we are happy with what we saw from the players.

“And, also taking into cognisant the fact that most of these players have been participating in these events outside the country and we also don’t usually get the opportunity to really see them in action.

“I think the first two events we performed quite well because on the podium we actually had Zimbabweans there.

“Then, in the end, we could attribute (the outcome) maybe to fatigue…but we could probably see that we still had higher chances of being in the limelight.

“So, I think the trajectory that we are moving in is quite exciting and this also supports our players.

“The reason why we are hosting the events was actually justified during these three weeks,” said Chitiyo.

Some of the highlights from the events were Sasha Chimedza reaching the girls singles final while Tadiwanashe Mauchi made the doubles final with her partner Iriela Rajaobelina in the first event, which was theJ60.

In the boys’ category, Thompson Thomu, won the doubles title when he teamed up with Liam Channon of Great Britain in the first tournament.

Chimedza also had a good run in the second event, the J100, when reaching the semi-finals and the doubles final when she partnered South Africa’s Celina Joseph.

“You find that in the calendars of events that we are following, three quarters of our players were coming from a school calendar, an academic calendar.

“They were not actively involved in terms of tennis participation.”