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Dzenga beats Jacobs to lift ITF Junior Championships

Tennis
NICOLE Dzenga raised the nation’s flag high when she beat Namibia’s Sedi Jacobs in three sets to win the girls’ Under-16 singles title at the ITF Southern African Junior Championships on Saturday.

NICOLE Dzenga raised the nation’s flag high when she beat Namibia’s Sedi Jacobs in three sets to win the girls’ Under-16 singles title at the ITF Southern African Junior Championships on Saturday.

Report by Vitalis Moyo

In an exciting and tough encounter, Dzenga prevailed to win the match 6-0, 3-6, 7-5.

Dzenga, the only Zimbabwean to reach the final in the tournament, stormed into the final after beating Lize Moolman of Namibia 6-2, 6-2 and then cruising past Madagascar’s Jackinah Rakotoha 6-2, 6-3.

Another Zimbabwean, Keren Muswere, appeared well on course to the final when she beat Ritumetse Metso of Lesotho 6-3, 6-1 in the same category before falling to Jacobs 6-2, 6-2 in the semi-finals.

Zimbabwe came close in the rest of the categories with most players making it to the semi-finals.

In the boys’ Under-16 category, both Zimbabwe’s representatives bowed out of the tournament without reaching the finals.

Fourth seeded Alwyn Mushonga lost to Brandon Laubser of South Africa 6-3, 7-5 in the semi-finals, while Julius Mthethwa lost to another South African Lloyd Harris 6-1, 6-0. Harris went on to beat compatriot Laubser 3-6, 6-3, 6-1 in the final.

In the girls’ Under-14 category, Kimberly Bhunu beat Namibia’s Sylvia Schultz 6-4, 6-0 before being knocked out by Lee Barnard of South Africa, while her compatriot Keren Machisa, who beat Priscilla Mayuka of Zambia 7-5, 6-3, suffered the same fate at the hands of another Barnard twin Zani.

The Under-14 girls final saw yet another all South African affair as top-seeded Lee beat her twin sister Zani 6-3, 6-4.

Mehluli Sibanda was also knocked out before reaching the final in the boys’ Under-14 category when he lost to Richard Thongoana of South Africa who went on to win in the final, beating top-seeded Andritovina Ratsimandres of Madagascar 6-3, 7-5.

In the boys’ Under-12 category, second-seeded Valentine Munyariwa failed to progress to the final after he lost his semi-final match 6-1, 6-4 to third seeded Barnabas Kalaba of Zambia.

In the same category, fourth-seeded Tinashe Hwata beat Benjamin Calitz of Namibia 6-1, 7-6 before going on to lose in the semi-finals against Tsholofelo Tsiang of Botswana.