Junior tennis players set for African champs

Sport
FIVE of the 12 Zimbabwe junior tennis players who represented the country at the Southern Africa Zonal Championships in Namibia last week have qualified for the prestigious International Tennis Federation (ITF) Africa Junior Championships set for Benoni, South Africa in July.

FIVE of the 12 Zimbabwe junior tennis players who represented the country at the Southern Africa Zonal Championships in Namibia last week have qualified for the prestigious International Tennis Federation (ITF) Africa Junior Championships set for Benoni, South Africa in July.

BY MUNYARADZI MADZOKERE

Zimbabwe finished fourth overall out of 12 participating nations at the zonal championships, finishing behind eventual champions South Africa, Madagascar and Mauritius respectively.

The country’s top under-14 girls player Rufaro Magarira was the pick of the Zimbabwe performers finishing as runnerup in her age group competition after losing to South Africa’s Gabriella Broadfoot 6-4 7-5.

Other players who made it to the continental finals include Taona Muhwandagara and Ethan Sibanda who finished sixth and seventh respectively in the under-14 boys contest.

Vimbai Moyo, seventh overall in the under-16 girls and Anesu Kwirirayi in the under-16 boys’ class, both booked their tickets for the finals to complete the number of players guaranteed of competing in Benoni.

“Overall, the team performed very well as we had the majority of the players in the team qualifying for the finals to be played in South Africa later this year. We are looking forward to a better performance at the Africa junior championships finals because some of the players have scores to settle for their defeats in Namibia,” coach Thesly Mufunda told Standardsport.

Three other players namely Charlotte Zhuwakini, Thabo Ncube, Claire Machisa are standby after they finished in the top 10 in their age-groups but outside the top seven, the cut off for automatic qualification.

The zonal championships, the biggest in recent years in terms of numbers with over 120 players competing, also doubled as the qualifiers for Junior Davis Cup and ITF World Junior Tennis Finals.

Only the under-14 girls’ team came the closest to qualifying but emerged runners-up to giants South Africa.