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ZIMBABWE’S junior tennis players taking part in the International Tennis Federation East African Circuit in Mombasa, Kenya found the going tough as they were all eliminated in the first round of the tournament. The competition started on Monday and is running until Saturday featuring players from across the world.
The players entered for the tournament on an individual basis as they seek to get ITF rankings points with Luca Picci taking part in the boys’ section while the quartet of Latifah Yasini, Boikoketso Hamadziripi, Karen Machisa and Rufaro Chirewa were taking part in the girls section.
Picci was knocked out of the tournament on Monday when he went down to Patryk Krolik of Poland 5-7, 5-7. He then teamed up with Olivier Kigotho and they lost to the pair of Giacomo Adoncecchi and Andre Joaquim of Italy 6-3, 7-6(2) in the doubles.
It was the same story for the girls with Chirewa, Hamadziripi, Machisa and Yasini who was seeded eighth in the tournament losing their opening matches.
Yasini was defeated by South Africa’s Jone Kruger 1-6, 5-7 while Machisa lost to Ukraine’s Oleksandra Andrieieva 3-6, 1-6.
Chirewa lost to Nikola Matuszak of Poland 4-6, 1-6 and Hamadziripi was dismissed by Flyora Shiyanova of Russia 6-2, 6-3.
Hamadziripi also lost the doubles match together with her partner from Ukraine Alisa Grachova to the pair of Roma Chandiran and Anna Kraus 6-1, 6-0.
Machisa and Yasini were set to take on Oleksandra and Andrieieva while Rufaro Chirewa and Matuszak had a date against Stephanie Mbaya and Chizi Mutsumi in the other doubles matches that were featuring Zimbabwean players. The participation in regional and other tournaments outside the country by local junior players has continued to expose the need for more exposure and experience for them to match with their counterparts from countries such as South Africa who have maintained their dominance over Zimbabwe.
Online Reporter