adminEllina Mhlanga Sports Reporter
WITH just two days to go before the country host Moldova in the Davis Cup Europe/Africa Group II relegation play-off, Tennis Zimbabwe say they are ready for the tennis event.
The tie will run from Friday to Sunday at Harare Sports Club and Zimbabwe’s squad is made up of five players — Takanyi Garanganga, who arrived in the country yesterday to join the other players — the Lock brothers — Benjamin and Courtney, Mark Fynn and Tadiwa Chinamo.
The team will be led by captain Martin Dzuwa and has been working with some of the players since last week at Harare Sports Club.
Tennis Zimbabwe administrator, Cliff Nhokwara, said all is in place with the referee for the event, Jan Kusvak, already in the country.
“We are good to go. The referee is already here and he is happy with the set-up of the court. We have no issues at the moment and the draw will be conducted on Thursday,” said Nhokwara.
The winner from this tie will stay in Group II and the losers will be relegated to the Africa Zone Group III.
Zimbabwe lost 1-4 to Bosnia-Herzegovina in the last tie while Moldova went down to Hungary with the same score. Both teams will be out to win to stay in Group II and it’s likely to be an exciting tie.
Moldova’s team is made up of young players — Dmitrii Baskov ranked 2030, Andrei Soltoianu, Maxim Bulat and Egor Matvievicia.
Soltoianu, Bulat and Matvievicia are not ranked and their oldest player is 20 years.
TZ president, Regis Bhunu, said they were hopeful the team will get the result to remain in the Group.
“We want to win and I believe we are going to win. Maybe it’s more of an ambition but we have to win.
“If we look at the rankings we are a little bit higher but these are youngsters (Moldova team) and their coming in may be devastating you never know.
“So we are not looking at the rankings,” said Bhunu.
Bhunu said they have managed to create two more courts in addition to the main court for practice purposes for the two teams unlike during the previous tie against Bosnia-Herzegovina when they had just one court.
“We have created two additional courts for the two teams. Last time we had only the centre court and the rest were different in terms of how the ball reacts but now we have two more courts and the main court,” said Bhunu.
Moldova were expected in the country late yesterday ahead of the tie.
Online Reporter