TZ shelve Fed Cup return

Ellina Mhlanga, Harare Bureau
TENNIS Zimbabwe have shelved their bid to return to Fed Cup this year as most of the players they want to use are not available due to college commitments.

TZ recently released their schedule for the year, with the premier international team competition in women’s tennis, being one of the events they were considering to take part in.

Zimbabwe last took part in the tourney more than a decade ago.

TZ manager, Cliff Nhokwara, yesterday said although they had entered the competition, they had to withdraw after failing to raise a team.

“Fed Cup, unfortunately, we withdrew, we could not raise a team. There were seven players selected and six of them were not available because of college commitments.

“So, we decided to shelve it for 2020.

“We enter as Tennis Zimbabwe pending submission of names. There is deadline for entering and then there is a deadline to submit names.

“We had entered as Zimbabwe but we had not yet given them names as we were still zeroing in on availability,” said Nhokwara.

Some of the players they were hoping to make the team were Pauline Chawafambira, Nicole Dzenga, Kimberly Bhunu, Beverly Matsiwe, Kimberley Kaome and Valeria Bhunu as well as upcoming Rufaro Magarira.

The TZ manager said just like the Davis Cup, they would want local players to have something to look forward to.

“Ideally, we want the girl child to look up to something, to say I play tennis so that I could represent Zimbabwe at Fed Cup,’’ said Nhokwara.

“Similar to what the Davis Cup does, it’s an opportunity for players to represent their country.’’

TZ have also want to bring back the Zimbabwe Open in October and have slated in two more Futures events in the same month.

They will be an addition to events they usually host between June and July.

“The Zimbabwe Open, currently with the budget we have, it’s okay for local players. But, if we have to attract regional and international players, we have to offer more, possibly in US dollar terms, which is a big challenge we are currently facing as a country.

“Futures events have a certain budget, a minimum budget which we have to achieve,” said Nhokwara.

Meanwhile, the Davis Cup team will today know what they are up against for their Europe/Africa Group II campaign when the draw is conducted at the ITF offices in London.

Zimbabwe will join six highest-ranked nations — Romania, South Africa, Denmark, Lithuania, Egypt and Norway as well as Bulgaria, Georgia, Morocco, Slovenia and Turkey — for the draw in their group.