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Elina Mhlanga Sports Reporter

TENNIS Zimbabwe is seeking to get competition underway with small events in the form of club championships in a move expected to help locally-based players get ready for the return to international tournaments.

The national association is looking at holding three 18-and-Under international tournaments between November and December.

But their emphasis at the moment is to start staging local competition in preparation of the upcoming international events they want to host.

The tournaments are usually held in March and August but could not be held as per their usual schedule following the disruption of the calendar due to the coronavirus outbreak.

Tennis is among the low risk sport codes and have been training while competition is subject to approval by the responsible authorities.

They have been given the go ahead by the International Tennis Federation for the junior events and they now have to apply for approval from the Sports and Recreation Commission and Ministry of Youth, Sport, Arts and Recreation.

Tennis Zimbabwe manager Cliff Nhokwara said the events will act as part of preparation for upcoming international tournaments.

“We have some events we are pushing, maybe not necessarily tournaments but small events as our platform to returning to competition. In our efforts to return to competition, which include the international events like the 18-and-Under in December, two pencilled for Harare and one in Bulawayo.

“For now we still have verbal arrangements with the ITF for the two in Harare. The plan is that the Bulawayo event moves back by a week. Instead of starting on December 7, we start on November 30,” said Nhokwara.