American tennis ace Evan King warmed up to the chill weather with a straight sets victory over compatriot Tyler Hochwalt to scoop the $10 000 Old Mutual Zimbabwe F1 ITF Futures title at Harare Sports Club yesterday.
By Our Staff
After dumping local favourite Benjamin Lock out of the tournament in the semifinals on Friday, third seed King became the top runner to win the first of three events to be hosted at the same venue in consecutive weeks. Ranked 587 on the latest ITF Pro Circuit rakings, King outplayed a fighting Hochwalt whose ranking is 1071 6-4 7-5, to cap a memorable first week in Zimbabwe with a title.
King adds to his doubles triumph alongside countryman Anderson Reed from Maputo, Mozambique last week at the F2 ITF Futures Standard bank Open.
The pair, which entered this competition as the number one seed, had to settle for silver as they were conquered by South Africans Lloyd Harris and Nicolaas Scholtz 7-5 6-4 on Friday.
Save for the Lock Brothers, Benjamin and Courtney, who made it past the first round with the former reaching the semis, it was a generally disappointing tournament for local players, especially considering the home advantage. Much was even expected of the Lock’s dream partnership when they teamed up in the doubles category but were unlucky to be drawn against the third seeded American pair of Hochwalt and Evan Song in the first round who then crushed them out of the tourney 6-4 6-4. The second Zimbabwe ITF futures event gets underway tomorrow.
