Masvingo players win big at International tournament

By Sukuoluhle Ndlovu

Masvingo – 8 Masvingo tennis players recently took part in the International Tennis Tour Under 18 J5 held in Bulawayo.

The tour which commenced on the 29th of May 2021 will end on the 12th of June 2021.

One of the players had a direct acceptance into the main draw and the other 7 played qualies.

The players that made it to the qualifying draw were Tatenda Banhamombe ,Strive Bosha, Tinotenda Chipfakacha, Chloe Chiweshe James Makaranga, Alea Musakaruka, Thandiwe Nkala and Tanatswa Tanyongana.

The team was represented by two boys Strive and James.

The 1st round qualies, Alea played vs Leticia Jeniphar Mugala from Zambia and lost 6-2 6-1, Chiweshe played against Zimbabwe based Patricia Munangagwa and won 6-1 6-0, Makaranga played vs Batsomi Marobela from Botswana and lost by 6-2 6-3. Nkala battled out with Zimbabwean Kimberly Peterson and lost 2-6 6-3 8-10.

Chiweshe made it to the second round where she played against Ruramai Nyamakura from Zimbabwe and won 6-2 6-2 and for the main draw she battled it out with Malaysian Jo Lean Saw and lost 6-1 6-0.

Tanyongana made it through to the main draw and lost 6-2 6-1 to Julie Tungamirai from Zimbabwe.

The team’s coach, Mark Chinyengani described the tournament as critical.

“It is a tough tournament with players from Europe, America, Asia and all over Africa. I think what is critical is to get our players exposed to this level of competition. The players had to go through 3 stages before becoming the winner which are; alternates, qualifiers and main draw. Alternates is the entry level of the tours. Most of the players that have not significantly enough to be recognized or have no ranking points, these will not be able to play the tournaments. The qualifiers these have played and most have rankings points but not enough to be in the main draw. So they need to play to get into the main draw,” he said.

The Masvingo team under coach Mark Chinyenyani got sponsorship from Nanolean clothing and Econet Wireless Masvingo. Nanolean clothing boosted the team paying some of the players entry fee for the world tennis showcase while Econet chipped in with sports kit for the technical team and its players.