ZIMBABWEAN tennis player Tinotenda Chanakira reached the second round of the NetOne Futures Tournament after defeating his Davis Cup captain Martin Dzuwa in straight sets at Harare Sports Club yesterday.
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The 25-year-old player, who was desperate for a win in his home tournament after a first round exit in last week’s Twenty Third Century System Futures, won the first round encounter against his compatriot 6-4, 6-3.
Chanakira, who is yet to win on the ITF Futures Circuit, now faces the winner between last week’s losing finalist Ruan Roelofse from South Africa and American Michael Grant for a place in the quarter-finals.
In other results, Ashley Sibanda, the qualifier from Botswana, was thumped 6-0, 6-2 by South Africa’s Lloyd Segal, while France’s Mathieu Rodrigues beat Stefan Merunka from Croatia 6-3, 6-1 Zimbabwe’s highest-ranked player in the competition, Mark Fynn, will be confident of progressing to the next round when he takes on Great Britain qualifier Joe Cooper today.
The 29-year-old, who is based in Turkey, will be hoping to do better this week after being knocked out in the second round last week.
Tinashe Chikanda, the only other local player to reach the second round last week also opens his campaign today with a tough first round match against Victor Girat from France.
South African fourth seed, Vorster Tucker also qualified to the second round after his opponent David Forchap retired due to injury in the third set. The big serving South African had earlier lost the first set 7-5, before recovering to win the second set 6-4.
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The NetOne Futures Tournament which has a prize fund of $15 000 and world ranking points on offer is the second ITF tournament being held in the country after last week’s Twenty Third Century Systems Futures Tournament.
Dutchman Dutch Boy Westerhof dominated the Twenty Third Century Systems Futures Tournament, winning both the singles title and the doubles competition where he partnered his compatriot Antal van der Duim.
