Zimbabwean players progress in ITF J30 byo circuit

FORMER Bulawayo Metropolitan Tennis Board (BMTB) chairperson, Tarwirwa “Raggs” Chikunichawa says the future of tennis in the country is looking good following an impressive showing by local players in the on-going ITF J30 Bulawayo Circuit.

Chikunichawa was speaking during the second leg of the Circuit, which is underway at Bulawayo Country Club and is of the view that with good corporate support, they are likely to get far.

He is the director of the tournament.

In the first leg of the event, Zahara El-zein and Ronan Mtisi won the girls’ and boys’ events respectively and with continuous hosting of these events, Chikunichawa said players will only get better.

“It shows that there has been a gradual build up of these events and I’m sure our local players are getting enough exposure by us hosting these events. The future for tennis in Zimbabwe is looking very good and we hope that we continue hosting these events and be able to attract some corporate sponsorship.

He said tennis was yet to attract corporates but he remains optimistic that they will soon come on board given that the game is improving.

In the second leg of the circuit, there was a reason to smile for Zimbabwe with a good representation in the quarter-finals of the boys and girls’ categories.

In the girls’ category, Zimbabwe has three players in the quarter-finals while in the boys’ there is one. The three girls that made it to the last eight are Kudzai Chapepa, Simphiwe Malunguza, and el-Zein. Mtisi made it to the quarters as well.

In her round two encounter, Chapepa beat Lyndsey Phillips (South Africa) 2-0 with set scores of 6-1 and 6-1 to set up a quarter-final date against Abigail Rosenski of Israel. In an all Zimbabwean affair, Malunguza beat Tendai Makunike 2-0 with set scores of 6-2 and 6-2 to proceed to the next stage where she will face Milan Swanepoel of South Africa.

In the other encounter there will be the duo of Om Chinnaswamy and Janakaraj (beat Guo Jiaming and Mohamed 6-2 and 6-4) up against Tshepang Maisela and Senti (who beat Moyo and Dev Patel 6-2 and 7-6).

Action resumes today and the tournament ends on Saturday. – @brandon_malvin