ZIMBABWE female tennis ace Fadzai Mawisire found the going tough at the Soweto Women’s Tennis Open in South Africa after she was knocked out in the first round at the Arthur Ash Tennis Complex on Monday.
Report by Daniel Nhakaniso
The Soweto Open, a Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) and International Tennis Federation (ITF)-sanctioned Challenger event on the international women’s circuit, boasts R500 000 in prize money as well as a bagful of international world ranking points.
The Bulawayo-born 25-year-old tennis player initially held her own in the competitive tournament after winning two consecutive matches in the qualifying round before she was knocked out in the first round proper by South Africa’s Madrie Le Roux.
Mawisire, a former assistant coach at Southern Illinois University in the US before her return home last year, started brightly against Le Roux before going down 7-5 6-1 in straight sets to bow out of the tournament.
Earlier, Mawisire, who was not seeded in the tournament, had to battle her way from the qualifying draw, managing to win two matches in a row.
In the first qualifying match, Mawisire beat Marli van Heerden 6-4, 6-3 before knocking out Lenice van Eyk after a 6-3, 6-1 straight sets win, but she would meet her match in the opening round.
Mawisire, who has been starved of local competition on the local circuit, went into the tournament gunning for her second title this year after winning both the singles and doubles titles at the Castle Lite Uganda Open in the East African country in March.
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Meanwhile, the country’s most successful female tennis player Cara Black progressed to the second round of the women’s doubles at Madrid Open in Spain on Monday.
Black, who was partnered by Croatian female tennis player Marina Erakovic, toppled the experienced pair of Frenchwoman Alize Cornet and Italian Francesca Schiavone 7-6 6-1 in just under an hour and a half. They are set to face Serb Jelena Jankovic and Mirjana Lucic-Baroni of Germany in the second round today.
