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Bhunu for Australian Open

Tennis
ZIMBABWE’S leading female junior tennis player Valeria Bhunu will rub shoulders with some of the world’s leading junior players in the sport when she takes part in the Australian Open Junior Championships next week.

ZIMBABWE’S leading female junior tennis player Valeria Bhunu will rub shoulders with some of the world’s leading junior players in the sport when she takes part in the Australian Open Junior Championships next week. REPORT BY DANIEL NHAKANISO SPORTS REPORTER

The Australian Open Junior Championships gets underway at Melbourne Park on Saturday with the finals scheduled for January 26. It will run concurrently with the seniors tournament where Zimbabwe is also represented by Cara Black in the women’s doubles.

Bhunu, who is based at the Growing Sports Tennis Academy in Cape Town, South Africa, is currently one of the leading female junior tennis players on the continent.

The promising 17-year-old tennis player will be hoping to use the tournament to make a good impression against some of the world’s top junior tennis players in the year’s first Grand Slam on the International Tennis Federation (ITF) Juniors circuit.

Grand slams are the most prestigious events on the junior circuit and are allocated the most ranking points.

Bhunu, currently ranked 374 in the world, will kick-start her campaign from the qualifying draw and will need to win some matches before earning her place in the main draw.

However, she was yet to know the identity of her opponents as the draw for the juniors tournament was yet to be conducted.

The former NetOne Zimbabwe Open champion ended last year on a high after winning the SAS Junior ITF 2 tournament in Stellenbosch, South Africa, in November, to complete a remarkable comeback from a six-month injury layoff.

The win in South Africa was Bhunu’s second on the ITF circuit after her breakthrough win at the ITF South and Central Junior Circuit Championships in Namibia in 2011. Zimbabwean junior tennis players have in the past taken part in junior grand slam tournaments before graduating to the seniors.

Players who took part in junior grand slams in recent years include the country’s leading professional tennis player Takanyi Garanganga, Benjamin Lock and Mbonisi Ndimande.