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Ellina Mhlanga Sports Reporter
AFTER successfully hosting the third Select Healthcare Tennis Masters that ended on Sunday at Harare Sports Club, Tennis Zimbabwe vice-president Biggie Magarira said they are hoping the tournament will culminate into the Zimbabwe Open next year as they target to make the event bigger.

The tournament ran from last Thursday to Sunday with seniors and juniors taking part as well as former players that are now into coaching.

For senior players, the tournament is now an event they look forward to since there hasn’t been much competition in terms of local tournaments apart from the International Tennis Federation Futures events that are usually held between June and July.
Magarira said following the tournament, they are hoping it culminates into the Zimbabwe Open starting from next year.

“We have been running this tournament for the past three, four years now, which next year we want to culminate into the Zimbabwe Open tournament because we didn’t want to rush to have a huge tournament like the Zimbabwe Open. “But now we have seen that with the limited resources we have and the players we have now in Zimbabwe, I think it’s high time we have an Open tournament which will include both men and women. So really beginning of the year, we will start working hard to make that a reality,” said Magararira.

Magarira admitted that they need to bridge the gap between juniors and seniors as they have continued to lose talent when players graduate from juniors to seniors.

“So with the senior tournaments probably apart from adding the Zimbabwe Open we might have another Masters tournament in Bulawayo and another Masters in Harare. Then we have the Zimbabwe Open, so probably for local tournaments we might end up having three tournaments next year,” said Magarira.

Former Davis Cup team captain Martin Dzuwa, who took part in the Masters tournament, said lack of competition for senior players has contributed to loss of talent.

“If you look at it that we are losing players when they reach 17 or 18 years because there is no incentive for them to keep playing besides going outside to play because we don’t have senior tournaments to keep them practising. So these kind of tournaments they do really help.

“Even if you look at the players to choose for Davis Cup, it’s a few players because there is no depth in the senior players playing the game. You know there is Takanyi (Garanganga), there is Mehluli (Sibanda) and you can point a few,” said Dzuwa. Dzuwa said more sponsored events on the local scene will go a long way in complementing players’ as they compete in international tournaments.

“But with such tournaments like this, if you have more, then you have more people playing because there is always a tournament maybe monthly or after two months or whatever.

“But there are also tournaments around the region but for the players to go there it also cost a lot of money but if they play and make some money then they are able to travel to the next tournament. But this is encouraging,” said Dzuwa.