The Chronicle

BULAWAYO, Tuesday, May 12, 1996 — Under 16 stars Michael Tshuma and Lauren Wagstaff are the only Matabeleland representatives in the Zimbabwe team named for the World Youth Cup tennis qualifier to be staged in South Africa next month.

The eight-member team was announced in Harare on Sunday at the end of the four-day Bata Zimbabwe Closed champions and includes Mashonaland’s Peter Nyamande, Gilbert Mafara, Kordia Economy, Nikki Fraser, Hailey Cameron and Colin McGaw.

The qualifying tournament runs from June 8-11 in Johannesburg, South Africa, with the finals set for Barcelona, Spain, from September 28-30.

Tshuma, Nyamande and Mafara also won selection into the Zimbabwe contingent for the annual ITF East and Central African satellite circuit which will be contested in August.

They join Gwinyai Tongoona, Zaheer Suleman, Cara Black, Tracy Robinson, Shirley Dawson, Gina Rock and Lisa Cerutti in the 10-member squad which will compete in Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Kenya — the four legs which make up the circuit.

Tshuma, holder of the Matabeleland Closed title and currently the most exciting under 16 prospect to come out of this province, fell at the semi-final stage of the Zimbabwe Closed and Bata Mashonaland Open events last week, losing to second seed Mafara on both occasions.

A week earlier, Tshuma finished runner up to Zaheer Suleman in the Bata Brooks round robin tournament held in Kadoma.

For 14-year-old Wagstaff, the opportunity to make an impression in the under-16 age group was not lost as she fought her way into the semi-finals of both the Mashonaland Closed and Zimbabwe Open events, where she bowed out to the top seeds.