LOCK BROTHERS OPEN SINGLES DAVIS CUP TIE
THE Lock brothers, Benjamin and Courtney, carry the country’s tennis hope on their shoulders when they both take to the court in today’s Davis Cup World Group II play-off at Harare Sports Club.
The draw for the tie was conducted at a local hotel yesterday, and the first match pits Courtney against Martin Cuevas at 11am, with Benjamin taking on Ignacio Carou in the day’s second match.
Second seed Mehluli Sibanda is injured and won’t be involved in this tie.
Zimbabwe captain, Takanyi Garanganga, thanked those who helped to ensure the team had the best of preparations.
“We thank Uruguay for coming to Zimbabwe. I would also like to thank the Tennis Zimbabwe president (Biggie Magarira), the supervisors who are doing a good job in trying to support the sport.
“We are looking forward to big crowds to support team. We have to win for us not to drop a tier in the Davis Cup. It has been a great week for Team Zimbabwe, and it is unfortunate that Mehluli is out through injury,” Garanganga said.
Uruguay captain, Enrique Perez, said they won’t be looking into rankings and emphasised that it was time they performed without their top player Pablo Cuevas.
Zimbabwe is ranked 67th in the world while Uruguay is ranked 42nd.
The absence of Pablo means Benjamin Lock is the tie’s highly ranked player.
“We are not looking much into the fact of who are favourites and who are not. Rankings don’t matter too much. In this case, the number one is from Zimbabwe.
“Players are used to playing on clay and hard courts. I believe the huge difference is in altitude which will make some difference, but we arrived last Saturday and we had time to acclimatise.
“Pablo was our number one probably for the last 15 years. He would have made a difference in the team, but the young players have to start playing without him,” he said.