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Ellina Mhlanga Senior Sports Reporter
TENNIS coach Vincent Nyatoti believes they have made some strides in preparing for the 14-and-Under Africa Junior Championships to be held in Egypt later this month.
The championships get underway with a warm-up event from March 17 to 20. The AJC main tournament will then run from March 22 to 27.
Zimbabwe’s team is made up of Tendekai Musabaeka, Makanaka Whata and Dilan da Silva in the boys category. Tafara Nhokwara is on the alternate list.
In the girls category, Zimbabwe will be represented by Zahara El Zein, Tinotenda Chipfakacha, Chanelle Zhuwakini and Thandiwe Nkala. The team is scheduled to leave for Egypt on Tuesday next week.
Nyatoti is the accompanying coach for the team and says they are now working on getting the players acclimatised to the different surface since they are going to play on clay courts in Egypt.
“In terms of preparation, I think we are almost there. But the only thing that we are trying to push and work on is getting them to acclimatise to the different surface.
“In Egypt they are playing on clay courts and this side they have been playing mostly on hard courts, which we are trying to make sure that they acclimatise between now and when they will play the tournament.
“And hopefully maybe the warm-up tournament will also give us the clearer picture but we are hoping that by then we should be ready because we are trying to get them to practice on those clay courts,” said Nyatoti.
Some of the players were part of the team that competed in the 14-and-Under tournament held in Bulawayo last year.
The upcoming event is an opportunity to measure their progress as they will compete against some of the players they met in Bulawayo.
“I think in terms of importance, this will give these players a bigger picture in terms of the level of competition at international level, especially considering that some of the players in the team are travelling for the first time. Some are travelling for the second time.
“Though they are travelling for the first or second time, they once met some of those players when they came for the 14-and-Under tournament last year, which makes it a little bit of a yardstick to see how far they have improved from last year and also to see how far they can go with the other players,” said Nyatoti.
Zhuwakini and Musabaeka were part of the 12-and-Under team that won the Confederation of African Tennis tournament held in Bulawayo last year. The event featured teams from Malawi, Botswana and Namibia.
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