The International Tennis Federation (ITF) accepted Tennis Zimbabwe (TZ)’s request to have the Zimbabwe Open tennis championships on the ITF Futures circuit.
The ITF Futures circuit is the lowest rung of professional tennis below the Association for Tennis Professionals (ATP) Challengers Tour, the ATP Tour and the pinnacle of professional tennis, the Grand Slam.
The tennis world governing body has, however, accepted TZ’s request on condition that they host two tournaments.
While Tennis Zimbabwe have the support of NetOne for the Zimbabwe Open, they are still in negotiations with potential sponsors for the other tournament
Tennis Zimbabwe president Anne Martin confirmed the development in an interview with NewsDay Sport on Friday.
“We have in the last two years successfully hosted tournaments on the ITF Junior Circuit and we felt we needed to take another step. We wrote to ITF expressing our desire for hosting tournaments on the ITF Futures circuit and the response we got was very positive. They accepted our request, but on condition that we host two tournaments a year,” she said.
“At the moment we only have the sponsorship from NetOne and we are still in negotiation with another potential sponsor which I cannot name at the moment for the other tournament.”
