Zimbabwe Davis Cup junior team named

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THREE junior tennis players — Mark Chigahadzira, Keith Wakatama and Alosha Chikanda — have confirmed their participation at next month’s Junior Davis Cup qualifying round to be held in Tunisia.

THREE junior tennis players — Mark Chigahadzira, Keith Wakatama and Alosha Chikanda — have confirmed their participation at next month’s Junior Davis Cup qualifying round to be held in Tunisia.

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The tournament, to include the hosts (Tunisia), Morocco, 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.

Chigahadzira, Wakatama and Chikanda replace Tadiwa Chinamo and Julius Mtetwa who qualified to represent the country based on the points garnered at the 2014 Africa Junior championships held in March, but are unable to travel to Tunisia because of academic commitments.

Tennis Zimbabwe convener of selectors Tanyaradzwa Chinamo confirmed the development.

“Tadiwa and Julius will be writing their examinations so they will not be able to make the trip to Tunisia. However, we have settled for Mark Chigahadzira, Keith Wakatama and Alosha Chikanda. They were chosen because of their current ranking,” he said.

Veteran junior coach Miracle Matanga, who travelled with the Zimbabwe players to the Africa junior championships in Kenya, is likely to be retained as the travelling coach.

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 the Junior Davis Cup.

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