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EYES ON THE BALL . . . Mark Fynn makes a back hand return during his match against Antal Van Der Duim at Harare Sports Club yesterday. — Picture by William Mafunga

Tafadzwa Nyakudanga Sports Reporter
IT  was déjà vu for Mark Fynn as he failed to beat Antal Van Der Duim for the second time in a week at Harare Sports Club yesterday at the ITF NetOne tennis tournament.
Fynn lost in straight sets 6-3, 6-2 in one hour and 17 minutes.
Last week when the pair met, Van Der Duim emerged the winner 6-3, 6-4 and yesterday it looked like Fynn did not learn from his mistakes.

“I think compared to last week, it was a very similar match in terms of how close the games were, but he managed to win majority of them which was probably the biggest difference today.”

“It was a bit of a tension in the forearm, but it is something we are used to as tennis players, so I cannot blame my defeat on that,” Fynn said talking about an injury he sustained at the end of the first set.

The Dutch’s serves proved to be his biggest asset as Fynn struggled to return the serves and conceding four aces.
Another local Tinotenda Chanakira also fell to South African Ruan Reolofse who won the match 6-1, 6-3.

One common denominator of these past two tournaments has been the Zimbabweans inability to hold their serves and it was evident in Chanakira’s match.

On his way to the quarter-finals, Roelofse hit a total of 13 aces to dump Chanakira out of the competition.
“I started off a bit too tight in the first set and Ruan (Roelofse) served unbelievably, I think he served about nine aces in the first set and I was not able to get my serve.

“In the second set I played well and it was a close match, but when he (Roelofse) broke my serve at 3-3 that took the game away from me,” said Chanakira.

Tournament favourite Dutchman Boy Westerhof did not disappoint as he fought back from a set down to beat South African Keith-Patrick Crowley 6-7, 6-3, 6-3.

Fourth seed Tucker Vorster of South African beat Spain’s Oscar Perez Hernandez in straight sets 6-1, 6-2 to reach his second consecutive quarter-finals.

Another top seed to book his place in the next phase of the competition was Mathieu Rodrigues (3) at the expense of Lloyd Segal from South Africa.

Fynn needed his doubles partner Matt Seeberger from the USA to beat Tucker Vorster and the Zambian Patrick Mufumbila 6-4, 6-4 to advance to the semi-final of the doubles.