Sports Reporter
THE 40th ITF/CAT African Junior Closed Championships continued yesterday with Sasha Taruberekera being the only Zimbabwean player, who completed her match as play was called off because of rain. The tournament being held in Tunis, Tunisia is running until Saturday. While Mehluli Sibanda and Kimberly Bhunu will continue with their matches today after play was called-off, it was a difficult day for Taruberekera as she lost 2-6, 3-6 to 12th seed Zarah Lennon from Mauritius.
Taruberekera had overpowered Mayssa Tebourbi from Tunisia on Tuesday to proceed to the second round.
Sibanda, who had a bye in the first round, will continue with his match against Mohamed Zakaria Khalil looking for a win. The Zimbabwean player was one set up when the match was stopped.
It is a simlar tale for Bhunu who will be hoping to cause an upset today when her match against second seed Diae El Jard of Morocco resumes and they will be going for the third set. They had won one set apiece yesterday. Bhunu took the first set 6-4 and El Jardi took the second one 6-4.
Dennis Moses takes on Tunisia’s Mohamed Ali Bellalouna, seeded fourth.
Gwinyai Tongoona, who is in charge of the players expressed satisfaction with the way the matches are progressing.
“Again a very good performance from everyone so far. Hopefully Kimberly can keep going and cause a major upset. So far she has played very well.
“And so did Mehluli in the first set of his match today,” said Tongoona.
Tennis Zimbabwe administrator, Cliff Nhokwara said championships open doors for the young players to continue improving their skills.
“It’s a continuation of development. It gives you more opportunities to play in bigger tournaments. If you excel at the AJC you qualify into the ITF team to tour Europe, it’s funded by ITF.
“Secondly they stand the opportunity to play in bigger events. Those are the major benefits. Anything above quarterfinals you qualify for something.
“You look at Mehluli he is one of the top ranked players in Africa, so he should be able to play anyone in Africa.
“We hope on his day he should be able to do well,” said Nhokwara.