Tennis Zim boss bares soul

WALTER JERA listened to his inner voice when he decided to do something about the troubles bedevilling Zimbabwe tennis.

It is the same inner voice that helped him ascend to the top of Tennis Zimbabwe (TZ) last year.

Jera wants to bring back “the good old days” to the sport.

“I think it was 2015/2016, just before the Harare Province elections, a local coach approached me and planted the idea that I should try going for one of the leadership posts,” said Jera.

“He argued that the sport was lacking someone who had been in the sport for as long as I have, since most merely started as parents for one of the players.

“I approached it from that basis; that is to say, the sport needed a true tennis person as a means to bring back the good old days.”

Jera took that message to heart and finally decided to throw his name in the hat for administrative duties.

He started off as Harare province vice chairperson, after which he replaced the late Collin

Mahere when he moved to the TZ board. In 2023, he took over as TZ president. Born on May 25, 1965, Jera’s marriage with tennis began some 44 years ago when he came across a tennis racquet that had been used and thrown away.

“My engagement or marriage with tennis started in 1980 when I picked up a tennis racquet at a dumpsite in Milton Park, where my mother worked as a maid,” said the 58-yearold.

“At the time, it was a mostly white-dominated sport, and we didn’t have tennis at St Faith’s Secondary School.

“The school did have a tennis court, but it was used for everything from volleyball to basketball . . . Even those who wanted to come and just hang out would use the facility.

“There was no structured tennis there; it was free for all, but that is what marked my tennis birth. I was always mesmerised by Alexandra Sports Club, Old Hararians Sports Club and seeing this sea of white people engaged in sport when I came to visit my mother in Milton Park.”

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