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Ellina Mhlanga

Senior Sports Reporter

WITH the Zimbabwe Davis Cup tennis team relegated to World Group III following their defeat to El Salvador over the weekend, captain Gwinyai Tongoona says the best they can do is to try and fight for a quick return to Group II.

The weekend’s disappointing defeat came as a surprise for Zimbabwe who, on paper, appeared to be the better team. But El Salvador turned the tables on the hosts to claim a 3-1 victory at Harare Sports Club.

Zimbabwe are now set to play regional events in Group III later in the year and El Salvador advance to the World Group II ties in September. The Zimbabwean team was made up of the Lock brothers — Benjamin and Courtney — and the Sibanda brothers — Mehluli and Ethan.

The two teams went into Saturday’s matches tied 1-1 and it was El Salvador who emerged as the winners on Saturday after taking the doubles and a reverse singles match. Tongoona admitted playing in the less fashionable Group III is going to be tough but said they need to try and fight to be promoted back into World Group II this year.

“Going into Group III is always tough and the best thing would be to bounce back in the next matches this year.

“It was a tough match. We had a chance to go up 2-0 after the singles on Friday but it didn’t work out.

“Mehluli played well and showed that he is able to compete at a high level. Benji played well and put us in the lead. Again we lost a close one in the doubles unfortunately. Reverse singles as well could have gone either way. The El Salvador number one really had to raise his level to win,” said Tongoona. Zimbabwe missed Takanyi Garanganga, who has previously played a key role in the team.

Going into the tie, Benjamin Lock said the absence of Garanganga was a setback but had hoped they could pull through.

Tongoona said for now there is need to support the players while investing in juniors for the future.

“The team will be the same probably for the next couple of years. So we need to support the players so they can go out and play tough events and improve their rankings.

“In the long term, we have to invest in juniors who will feed into the team as years go by. Local competition and training needs to improve. There is a lot of work and organisation to do,” said Tongoona.