Online Reporter
Zimpapers Sports Hub
NEVER has a word carried so much meaning!
That was the story of the day as Zimbabwe’s Davis Cup top seed Courtney Lock punched the air and yelled out an emphatic “yeah” as he wrapped up his 6-3, 6-2 win over Arnold Ikondo Moke of the Democratic Republic of Congo in an Africa Group IV match at the Nairobi Club in Kenya yesterday.
The result effectively wrapped up the tie for Zimbabwe as they took an unassailable 2-0 lead after Ronan Mtisi had earlier beaten DR Congo’s Isaac Bokungu 6-2, 6-3.
Unfortunately, the Zimbabwe duo of Zamani Moyo and Makanaka Whata failed to replicate their singles stars as they went down to the Congolese pairing of Bokungu and Moise Kumase 6-4, 2-6, 2-6.
This gave Zimbabwe Davis Cup a 2-1 win over the Democratic Republic of Congo and kept them in the running for a play-off place on Saturday. The Zimbabwe Davis Cup team rounds off their group stages with a tie against Angola today, as the team continues their march towards promotion and a return to the Davis Cup Africa Group III.
Eight nations are in Kenya as they fight it out for promotion in the Davis Cup Africa Group IV tournament.
The eight include Ghana, Algeria, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Angola, Botswana, Kenya and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The top two nations from each pool advance to the promotion play-offs for the two slots to next year’s Davis Cup Africa Group III.
Pool A consists of Ghana, Algeria, Kenya and Botswana, while Pool B consists of Mozambique, DR Congo, Angola and Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwe is in contention for Saturday’s play-offs after two victories over Mozambique (3-0) during the opening day and the Democratic Republic of Congo (2-1) yesterday.
The Zimbabwe Davis Cup team find themselves in uncharted territory as they continue to free-fall down the pecking order on the Davis Cup tennis circuit.
And in the absence of his elder brother, Benjamin, Courtney Lock seems to have carried a huge chunk of that weight on his shoulders.
Zimbabwe were demoted to the Africa Group IV after crumbling to four straight defeats against Senegal, Algeria, Nigeria and Namibia during the five-nation Africa Group III tournament last year.
The event was held at Harare Sports Club, and Courtney is one of two survivors from that tournament, alongside Mtisi.
While his singles match against Moke yesterday was pretty much a one-sided affair, Lock played the match with a lot of emotion.
It is this emotion that pretty much summarises the current state of Zimbabwe tennis.
The tie itself did not get off to the best of starts for the Zimbabwean as Lock and Moke exchanged breaks during the first two matches of the tie. After he regrouped, the 29-year-old Zimbabwe top seed totally dominated his opponent, winning a commanding 65 points as compared to Bokungu’s 48.
He made just three aces while operating at 78 percent on first serve and 77 percent on the second.
Lock successfully converted four out of a possible six break points during his win over the DR Congo player, with the match lasting one hour and 47 minutes.
The doubles match remains the only blemish from an otherwise good day in the office for Gwinyai Tongoona’s charges.
Moyo and Whata raced through the opening set of their doubles tie which they took 6-4.
Unfortunately, the DR Congo would hit back and do so emphatically Bokungu and Kumase took the second and deciding third with identical 6-2 wins.
They won 85 points in total as compared to Whata and Moyo’s 63, claiming a total of five out of 13 possible break points.
Whata and Moyo could only break their opponents twice out of a possible four.
