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Ellina Mhlanga Sports Reporter
ZIMBABWE’S top players Courtney Lock and Ronzai Saurombe continued with their good run in the ongoing ITF South Central African Junior Circuit at Harare Sports Club when they booked their places in the quarter-finals yesterday at Harare Sports Club. Lock beat Kuktla Motlojoa of Lesotho 6-1, 6-3 to progress to the last eight and will take on Kris Van Wyk of South Africa today. Van Wyk defeated Sahil Gaware 6-3, 6-4 in the other match.

Lock seeded fourth in this event recently won the Wanderers ITF Under-18 Junior Circuit in Johannesburg and will be hoping to continue with his winning ways to proceed to the semi-finals.

His countryman, Saurombe also put on a good show when he overpowered India’s Aryna Goveas 6-2, 2-6, 6-4 in a match that had to be decided in the third set.

Saurombe will now face South Africa’s Lloyd Harris who beat Tomer Shilo from Israel 3-6, 6-4, 6-2.
In other matches played top seed Guy Orly Iradukunda from Burundi dismissed India’s Gnana Venkata Paramatmuni in straight sets 6-2, 6-2 while fifth seed Aziz Dougaz of Tunisia prevailed over Clement Sarradin 6-2, 6-1. Iradukunda and Dougaz will clash in the quarter-finals.

Gueninle Abdoul Karir Quattara defeated Chisomo Lumeta 6-2, 6-2 and Ismael Mzai beat Jd Malan 7-6 (4), 6-1. Quattara has a date against Mzai.
In the girls section all of Zimbabwe’s representatives were eliminated on Tuesday in the opening matches with top player Nicole Dzenga who was seeded fifth losing 4-6, 5-7 to Emmanuelle De Beer of Mauritius.

In matches played yesterday Theresa Van Zyl dismissed Rikeetha Pereira 6-4, 6-4 while Tessah Andrianjafitrimo defeated Marli Van Heerden 6-4, 6-0. Ialita Devarakonda overpowered Louise-Mare Botes 6-3, 2-6, 6-2 and Devilliers Nadine beat Huibre-Mare Botes 6-1, 6-3.

Mariana Humberg outclassed Rouxanne Janse Van Rensburg 6-1, 6-2 while Ukraine’s Anna Dollar defeated De Beer 7-5, 6-3. Katie Poluta beat Dhruthi Tatachar Venugopal 6-3, 7-5. The winners will today fight for places in the last eight.

Tennis Zimbabwe administrator Cliff Nhokwara said the elimination of most of the players in the early stages shows lack of exposure in the junior players.

“The depth of the tournament is quite big and what it means is food for thought for players, coaches and parents. We need to step up all of us, there is more we can do.

“Our culture is we play one of two tournaments a year and our teams are not aggressive.. The likes of Courtney put in so much time participating in international and local tournaments. Our kids need to be more involved, playing week in week out besides training on the courts,” said Nhokwara.

Nhokwara said most of the players rely on tournaments that are held here but there is need for them to travel outside the country for more competition if they are to match the standard of their counterparts.

“A lot of our girls that are here wait for tournaments to come to Zimbabwe. We can’t expect a miracle, if we don’t get exposure we don’t get results. We have kids coming all the way from Ukraine, India and the United States, so we really can’t talk of expenses,” added Nhokwara.

The tournament continues today with the quarter-finals and doubles matches as participants hope to accumulate more points to help them improve on their world rankings.