Vusumuzi DubeMehluli Sibanda, Senior Sports Reporter
ZIMBABWEAN female pool tennis player, Christine Sengwe finished fifth at the recently held Arnold Classic Africa Games held in Johannesburg, South Africa.
The 32-year-old Sengwe, one of the country’s best female pool players played five matches at the three-day held at Ruimsig Stadium in Roodepoort. She was knocked out in the quarterfinals by South African Bianca Naude who went on to finish third. Before being knocked out, Sengwe had won three matches out of the four in the group stage.
Sengwe feels that taking part in the Arnold Classic helped her improve her focus since she was up against really good opponents as opposed to when she faces locals. All her opponents in the group stage were men.
“I played four matches in the group stage and one in the quarterfinals. It was a great experience for me, it improved my focus levels, when playing games locally you don’t have pressure because you are playing against guys that you are familiar with but out there, I was playing against really good players. Like now they are preparing to go to the World Cup in Morocco so their game is on top of ours,’’ said Sengwe.
Her focus now is on the Carling Black Label National Pool Championships whose national finals are slated for Harare on 9 July. Coming up are the provincial qualifiers to be held in the country’s 10 provinces in the build-up to the national tournament, which is making a return after not being held in 2020 and 2021 due to Covid-19.
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