Three Zimbabwe tennis players in Junior Davis Cup

Sport
THREE Under-16 tennis players will represent Zimbabwe at the Junior Davis Cup qualifying round to be held in Tunisia in June.

THREE Under-16 tennis players will represent Zimbabwe at the Junior Davis Cup qualifying round to be held in Tunisia in June. BY ALBERT MARUFU

The tournament, to include – Tunisia, Egypt, South Africa and Zimbabwe, will be held on the week commencing June 9 with the winner proceeding to the finals set for September at a venue to be decided.

Two of the players Tadiwa Chinamo and Julius Mtetwa were chosen based on their points garnered at the 2014 Africa Junior Championship in Kenya in March, but a third player will be chosen by selectors.

The doubles pair of Mtetwa and Chinamo did well to reach the finals of the Under-16 AJC finals, but lost to Egypt’s Yousef Hossam and Sherif Makhlouf in the final.

Tennis Zimbabwe (TZ) administrator Cliff Nhokwara confirmed the development.

“Tadiwa and Julius and a third player to be chosen by selectors will represent Zimbabwe at the Junior Davies Cup in Tunisia. The selectors will soon meet to decide on the coach and the third player. They did very well at the AJC finals and their qualification was based on that performance,” he said.

Junior Davis Cup was launched by the ITF in 1985 as the 16-and-under World Youth Cup, and rebranded in 2002.

Leading tennis stars such as Jim Courier, Michael Chang, Goran Ivanisevic, Gustavo Kuerten, Marat Safin, Roger Federer, Lleyton Hewitt, Andy Roddick, Rafael Nadal and Bernard Tomic have taken part in Junior Davis Cup.

Meanwhile, a number of Zimbabweans based in South Africa have expressed an interest in participating at the Zimbabwe Closed Junior Tournament to be held at the end of this month.

The 18 and Under tournament, which will be used to choose players to represent Zimbabwe in international tournaments, is expected to run from April 30 to May 3.

“A number of Zimbabweans based in South Africa will be playing at the tournament. Players will have to pay a US$15 entry fee with entries closing on April 25,” said Nhokwara.