70 expected for Bulawayo Open Tennis championships

Tennis
THIS year’s edition of the Bulawayo Open Tennis championships to start on April 5 is expected to attract 70 players from the City of Kings and outside.

THIS year’s edition of the Bulawayo Open Tennis championships to start on April 5 is expected to attract 70 players from the City of Kings and outside.

FORTUNE MBELE SPORTS REPORTER

The Bulawayo Open will be followed by the Tarryn-Leigh De Souza Memorial tournament both heralding the Bulawayo Metropolitan Tennis Board’s 2015 calendar.

Last year, both competitions were held in August.

Tournament director Zenzo Ndlovu yesterday confirmed the Bulawayo Open Tennis championships.

“The tournament will be held at BAC (Bulawayo Athletic Club), but we are looking at big numbers and we are likely to use GC, Whitestone and Petra. The age groups are from six to 18 and will be using the red ball, orange ball, green dot and the normal ball.

If we have few participants we will do the round-robin format and the top four in each age group would play semi-finals and then the finals, but if we are overwhelmed, we would start with the knockouts. There are some tournaments that will be going on around the country, but usually we are supported by Masvingo and Harare,” Ndlovu said.

Tanaka Chabata won the tournament last year in the boys Under-18 after beating Tinashe Hwata 6-1, 6-2 in the final.

The girls section of the Under-18 was won by Rutendo Makamure who edged her sister Rumbidzai 6-2, 6-2.

Compared to 120, who took part in 2013, last year’s participants dropped to under 70. Chabata won the Tarryn-Leigh de Souza competition who beat Bongani Sibanda 3-6, 6-2, 6-2 in the boys’ Under-18 section while Takudzwa Mawisire overpowered Nicole Chigwada 6-0, 6-4 in the Under-18 girls category.