Zim relegated to Africa Group III
TENNIS Zimbabwe president Walter Jera says more needs to be done if they are to make progress in the Davis Cup.
Zimbabwe were relegated to Africa Group III after a 3-1 loss to Hong Kong in an away World Group II Play-off tie that ended yesterday at the Victoria Park Tennis Stadium.
The team was made up of the Lock brothers — Benjamin and Courtney, Benedict Badza and Tatenda Mutetwa. They were led by non-playing captain Takanyi Garanganga.
This is the third year in a row that Zimbabwe found themselves back in the Africa Group III and will have to fight for a spot to return to the World Group II Play-offs.
“What this speaks to is that this is where we belong at the moment. This is the capacity that we have. The capacity that we have sent to Group III.
“What it is then for the way forward is, remember we are talking about our youngsters . . . Badza was thrown in last minute, but he still won. It does not matter who he played but he won. So also that peaks to our future.
“What it essentially entails, is that we need to invest more by still taking advantage of probably Benji being a senior person. But we need to invest more into these youngsters,” said Jera.
Zimbabwe had a difficult start to the tie losing the first two singles matches on Saturday. First on court was Benjamin and he lost 6-3, 3-6, 6-7(5) to Hong Kit Wong. Courtney then went down to Coleman Wong 6-2, 6-0 in straight sets.
With Hong Kong leading 2-0 going into yesterday’s doubles match and the reverse singles, Zimbabwe needed to win the doubles to give themselves a chance to fight for a comeback.
But the pair of Benjamin and Courtney were dismissed 6-4, 6-0 by the pair of Coleman Wong and Chun Hun Wong.
Badza, then won the dead rubber against Kwok Shun Dasson Chan 7-6 (5), 6-4, 10-6.
Zimbabwe earned their promotion back into the World Group II Play-offs last August at the Africa Group III event in South Africa. They were relegated to the less fashionable Group early in the year when they lost to Uruguay in the World Group II Play-offs at Harare Sports Club.
In 2022, they were relegated to Africa Group III when they lost to El Salvador. They returned to the World Group II playoffs when they beat Namibia in a promotional play-off at the Africa Group III event held in Algeria.
The weekend’s defeat comes as a disappointment to the team as they had hoped for a change of fortunes.
The 12 winning nations from the weekend’s ties will progress to play a World Group II tie in September and Hong Kong will be among of those nations.
Jera said there is a need to go back to the drawing board and find the best way to capacitate sport in the country.
“The current scenario that we are operating on is not sustainable for any sport where sport is run by investments or as it were, resources from parents, which is like private individuals.
“When you talk of a national team, it belongs to the nation. So the national association ought to be resourced, not necessarily by someone but we need it to start right from the government level.
“This is their team and we should also be talking of a situation where we are saying, we got this even as a grant from the Ministry and the grant is obviously towards capacitating development, this is what we have produced. But that’s not happening at the moment.
“So from a broader perspective, all of us need to go to the drawing board in terms of capacitating sport in general in Zimbabwe. We are lacking there, the government needs to take up a stand and we start up from there,” Jera said.