WATCHING Zimbabwe tennis ace Takanyi Garanganga playing some few years ago became an inspiration for young Valentine Munyawiri who is now a bright prospect to be the biggest thing in the country’s tennis world.
By Brian Nkiwane
Despite enduring one of his longest journeys by road to Namibia on January 3 for the 2013 ITF/CAT Southern African Junior Championships which took two days, Munyawiri surpassed expectations at the just ended 11-nations tournament.
He chalked a bronze medal in the boys’ Under-12 category which added to the other medals by Zimbabwe to bring the overall medals haul to five as the country finished third on the medals table.
Other countries that participated at the tournament were Mozambique, Zambia, South Africa, Mauritius, Swaziland, Madagascar Lesotho and the host Namibia.
Munyawiri came tops in the boys’ Under-12 round robin stage where he played five matches before being knocked out in the semifinals by Zambian ace Barnabas Kalaba who went on to claim gold.
“I was overwhelmed because it was my first time to play outside Zimbabwe. I think it’s something commendable for a young player like me to perform so well in my first international appearance,” Munyawiri said.
“I played so well in the round robin stage where I emerged the winner before surrendering the top post to a Zambian boy who beat me in the semis and I then settled for third place.
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“I had initially beat the guy in the round robin phase 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 before he beat me 6-4, 6-0 in the semis” he added.
Born 12 years ago in Mufakose and being the only boy in a family of four, Valentine was firstly inspired to play tennis by one of his sisters Rachael who had played the sport before.
He grew up in Mufakose before learning to hold the racket for the first time at Ramangwana ReAfrica, a tennis academy right in the midst of Mufakose founded by Tongesai Zvaravanhu. Since then, Valentine has not looked back, winning a number of tournaments which include the Mutare Open in 2010 and the Gweru tournament in 2011 where he also came out tops. He was runner-up on two occasions in 2012 in the New Winners and the Astra Paints tournaments.
The Grade Seven pupil at Gwinyiro Primary School started playing tennis when he was in Grade 1 but at that time there was no tennis at the school.
“At times it’s good to be one that forces a change at a place like a school. There was no tennis at our school before, but due to the growth of Ramangwana ReAfrica in our hood, the school was forced to introduce the sport,” he said.
Commenting on his exploits in Namibia, his coach Zvaravanhu, said the boy did well considering that it was his first international appearance.
“I think he did well by bringing a bronze medal in his first attempt. The failure to win gold could be because of fatigue, a long journey or stage fright,” Zvaravanhu said.
Farai Munyawiri, his father also spoke glowingly of the boy whom he said has shown maturity as he is managing to balance sport and his academic studies.
“He is doing well at school as well as in tennis. I will do anything to make sure that the boy gets whatever he wants for his tennis career to blossom,” he said.
He thanked the founder of the Ramangwana ReAfrica, Zvaravanhu, Tennis Zimbabwe, his son-in-law Luckson Zembe of Management Solution who helped them raise the US$800 that was required for the Namibia trip.
