Tongoona feels competing is best way to prepare Gwinyai Tongoona

Ellina Mhlanga Senior Sports Reporter

ZIMBABWE Davis Cup captain, Gwinyai Tongoona, says the best way to prepare for their next assignment is for his players to continue playing more tournaments.

They have a World Group II tie, against Tunisia, next month, on November 26 and 27, in the knock-outs in Tunis.

The team is made up of the Lock brothers — Benjamin and Courtney — Takanyi Garanganga and Mehluli Sibanda.

“I guess our preparations, really, it’s the guys playing tournaments because I know Takanyi wasn’t playing much, he was just training, because he is coming off that knee injury,’’ said Tongoona.

“Mehluli has been playing, he just came back from South Africa.

“Courtney and Benjamin, they were also in South Africa.

“I think they have gone to play in Europe now and when the team gets together, that will be our preparation for that week, for the tie.

“So, as long as everyone is playing and they are active and they are healthy, this is what we are looking at, which tournaments they play, what level they are playing, the higher the better.

“Tunisia have got a strong team, and we want our players to be at peak performance for that tie, so that they play their best.”

Tennis Zimbabwe have been including a junior into the team, as part of development efforts, for the future.

But, for this tie, the national association have indicated it will be difficult to do so, because of the costs involved.

The winner will advance to the 2022 World Group I Play-offs while the losing nation will compete in the World Group II Play-offs.

The selected players have been part of the Davis Cup team for some time.

“It’s not that we don’t have other players but we want to field the strongest team because we have a chance this time, I think, if we win we go to Group I.

“That would mean if we play a home tie, we are going to see better tennis, we see, maybe, some of the guys playing in the top 100, coming to play in Zimbabwe.

“And, that’s very important for tennis because then our players, our youngsters, get to see that, they get to experience that, it builds their vision and dreams.

“At the moment, we want our strongest team, we want to have the best, we want to beat Tunisia, that’s what we want,” said Tongoona.

Tunisia are ranked number 55 and Zimbabwe are 62.

Tennis Zimbabwe president, Biggie Magarira, said they would have wanted to have the top junior players, as part of the team, but have been limited by costs.

“Benjamin, Takanyi, Courtney and Mehluli, those are the four players who were selected by the selectors.

“But, since we are going away, you know the costs, we would have loved to pick our top juniors, but the cost is restricting us.

“If we were at home, our junior player will normally be in the team,” said Magarira.

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