TENNIS Zimbabwe (TZ) has lost in its bid to host next year’s Davis Cup Africa Zone Group Three after International Tennis Federation (ITF) settled for Egypt.
BY ALBERT MARUFU
The 15-team tournament that will see two teams being promoted to Africa Zone Group Two will be played at Cairo’s Smash Tennis Academy from May 13 to 18.
The association’s vice-president Regis Bhunu said they had written to the tennis controlling body expressing their willingness to host the tournament, but their request was turned down.
“Normally they do not give reasons for turning down offers. However, we hope to qualify for the next group regardless of where we are playing. Playing at home would have boosted our chances of qualifying to Euro/Africa Zone Group Two,” Bhunu said.
Bhunu, whose association last week hosted the ITF Futures Circuit, expressed confidence that they would host bigger events.
“We now have the required facilities and the capacity,” he said.
Zimbabwe will be hoping for a better performance next year after finishing third in the same competition in Tunisia this year. Hosts Tunisia and Benin were promoted to Group II.
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Missing the services of top player Takanyi Garanganga, the trio of Benjamin Lock, Tendai Tapfuma and Mark Fynn, beat Ghana and Namibia, but lost to host in their pool A matches. They then fell to Benin in the third and fourth play-offs to finish tied on third position with Ivory Coast.
Zimbabwe joins Algeria, Botswana, Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Madagascar, Morocco, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda and Zambia in next year’s competition.
The countries will be grouped in four pools with top nations in pools A and B drawn to play off against top nations in pools C and D. Two winning nations would be promoted to Europe/Africa Zone Group II for 2014.