ZIMBABWE junior tennis player Courtney Lock won the doubles title at the Wanderers International Tennis Federation (ITF) U’18 Junior Circuit in Illovo, Johannesburg, on Sunday to confirm his status as one of the leading junior tennis players on the continent.
DANIEL NHAKANISO
The 16-year-old rising star and his South African playing partner Bjorn Scheebouwer put on a dominant display to comfortably beat the South African pair of Trent Botha and Kris Van Wyk 6-1, 6-2 in the final at Wanderers Sports Club.
Lock is the younger brother of Florida-based Zimbabwe Davis Cup tennis player Benjamin Lock.
He went into the tournament on the back of an impressive display in Tunisia a fortnight ago where he narrowly lost in the final of the doubles competition with his Indian playing partner Sahil Deshmukh.
The young star, however, cleared the final hurdle this time around and with his victory in the doubles competition made amends for a disappointing performance in the singles where he was knocked out in the first round.
The other Zimbabwean players to feature in the competition include Nicole Dzenga and Rufaro Chirewa.
Dzenga reached the quarterfinals of the girls’ singles main draw before losing 6-3, 6-0 to the eventual champion Lesedi Jacobs from Namibia.
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Chirewa lost 6-2 2-6 6-4 to South Africa’s Kimberly Botha in the second round of the qualifying draw. The first of the back-to-back tournaments to be held in South Africa, the Wanderers ITF started last Wednesday culminating in the finals on Sunday.
It will be followed up by the Gauteng North Junior ITF to be played from tomorrow in Pretoria starting at the Groenkloof Tennis Stadium tomorrow.
Both tournaments are Grade 4 events on the ITF’s Junior Circuit. The back-to-back tournaments in South Africa will be followed up by two other 18-and-Under ITF Junior Circuit tournaments to be played at Harare Sports Club from July 27 to August 10.
