Top seed Lock on course

TOP seed Benjamin Lock remained on course in the second International Tennis Federation Old Mutual Futures Series when he beat Nicholas Nugent of Great Britain at Harare Sports Club yesterday.

Coming from the doubles victory on Tuesday with partner Nathaniel Lammons, Lock played good tennis, maintaining an upper hand most of the time to dismiss Nugent 6-3, 6-2.

“My opponent has a good serve. He plays pretty aggressive, doesn’t give you rhythm so I really had to make sure to have control of the match in the beginning and focus on my serve.

“I thought today was good. It’s good to get the job done. But I have a lot to improve on if I want to progress like the way I should,” Lock said.

For the second round, Lock plays South Africa’s Siphosothando Montsi.

He will then team up with Lammons from United States for the doubles quarter-finals encounter against the Sibanda brothers — Mehluli and Muzingaye.

“Unfortunately, we play fellow Zimbabweans, we play the Sibanda brothers.

“I would have preferred not to play them, maybe it would have given chances for both of us going through to the semi-finals.

“Unfortunately, that’s not how the draw works, so I mean we are going to have to compete,” said Lock.

Muzingaye said they are going out to do their best.

“Will take it like the first round match.

“Benji is a top seed, but I can’t walk into the match respecting him . . . we can’t beat him when we want to get his autograph at the same time.

“So we will fight, we will try our best,” said Muzingaye.

Mehluli will be hoping to be at his best today after losing the singles match to fifth seed Jonathan Kanar 3-6, 1-6.

“Toda, I didn’t really play that well, like I wasn’t that good for a fifth seed at the tournament and I guess I just need to improve.’’

“We still playing doubles tomorrow, well I just need to hit more balls and maybe work on my foot work and hopefully will play well tomorrow,” said Sibanda.

Another Zimbabwean player that was in action yesterday was Mark Fynn and it was also not a good day for him as he lost 3-6, 3-6 to France’s Thomas Setodji.

Fynn and his doubles partner Nicolaas Scholtz take on the pair of Lleyton Cronje and Timothy Dollman.

Mark Chigaazira will also be in action today when he faces Thales Turini.