Africa Jnr Champs postponed

FOLLOWING the postponement of the 18-and-Under Africa Junior Closed Championships, Tennis Zimbabwe manager, Cliff Nhokwara, says it will give the players more time for their preparations.

The championships were set for July 18 to 24 in Sousse, Tunisia, but they were called off, due to the surge in Covid-19 cases, in that country.

“That affected the Africa Junior Championships also, so they have been cancelled for now,” said Nhokwara.

“It’s a blessing in disguise for us, here also sport is on suspension, and you can’t have the players on court.

“It was going to be difficult to send players to the Africa Junior Championships while they have not trained.

“So, we can’t complain really to say why it was cancelled for now.’’

Zimbabwe had named an eight-member team for the competition with Rufaro Magarira,

Tanyaradzwa Midzi, Tadiwanashe Mauchi and Chelsea Chakanyuka expected to compete in the girls’ category.

Ethan Sibanda, Benedict Badza, Lyle Zaloumis and Taona Mhwandagara were going to represent the country in the boys’ section.

Nhokwara revealed that the three International Tennis Federation 18-and-Under tournaments that were set to start towards the end of this month, in Harare, are likely to be postponed.

“We are talking to ITF and SRC to move them given the current situation.

“Hopefully, mid-August, the situation would have slowed down. “Fortunately for us, in Southern Africa, there are no events during that period, so we are trying to fit them from mid-August to end of August,” said Nhokwara.

The first tournament was supposed to run from July 26 to July 31, followed by another event from August 2 to 7 and the last one was scheduled for August 9 to 14.