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Davis Cup: Takanyi gets Zim underway

Sport
THE Zimbabwe Davis Cup team says they do not fear Bosnia-Herzegovina whom they meet in the Euro-Africa Zone Group II tennis tie at Harare Sports Club, with Takanyi Garanganga setting the ball rolling this morning.

THE Zimbabwe Davis Cup team says they do not fear Bosnia-Herzegovina whom they meet in the Euro-Africa Zone Group II tennis tie at Harare Sports Club, with Takanyi Garanganga setting the ball rolling this morning.

BY HENRY MHARA

The draw for the three-day tournament was conducted yesterday at the match venue with Zimbabwe’s number one-ranked player Garanganga, ranked 324 in the world, getting Bosnia and Herzegovina’s second best player Mirza Basic (199 in the world) in the first singles opener.

This match will kick-off at 10am.

While the first draw produced the proverbial David versus Goliath contest, the difference in class for the second singles match between Zimbabwe’s second best player Benjamin Lock and Bosnia’s Damir Dzumhur is even more pronounced. Lock is ranked 1 205, while Dzumhur is ranked 89 in the world.

In the doubles draw, Zimbabwe’s partnership of returning Wayne Black and Mark Fynn would tussle it out against the pair of Tomislav Brkic and Nerman Fatic tomorrow before the reverse singles matches on Sunday.

The winners of the tie will play winners from the Hungary and Moldova clash, while the losers of the two contests will be involved in a relegation play-off.

“On paper, they are a lot better than us, and they had good Davis Cup results last year. Overall, they have a better team, but we would be playing in a home court and we will fight hard to get a victory here,” Black said.

Garanganga, who will obviously carry much of the country’s hopes, is ready.

“I have been training for the last couple of weeks, and leading up to here, I have been working hard. So I feel good and ready to play. Everyone is ready. He (Basic) is a good athlete and so am I. So we will see how it goes tomorrow (today),” the 25-year-old said.

“It’s more exciting to play in front of the home supporters. My chances are always good depending on how I manage my game. Everything should be in my hands. I need to be able to control the game so that when the results come, they are positive,” he added.

Added Black: “There would be a bit of some pressure, but I will tackle that in my own mind. I don’t think that everybody would be expecting too much from me because they know I have been away from tennis for a while, so I would just make sure that I don’t put pressure on myself during the match because if I do that, I will end up playing badly.

“Speed is not an issue, but just that I have to be a bit sharp. Doubles is not so physical, so I think I can compete. I still have friends on tour, some 42-year-olds, but still playing doubles and are in the top 10 in the world. So I don’t think age is too much of a factor in the doubles.”

Bosnia’s non-playing captain Amer Delic believes that a good start today would set the tone for the tournament for his team “It’s the first time the Zimbabwe team is playing at home so I am sure they have a lot on their shoulders, a lot of pressure too for them. So we will try to exploit that. We are very comfortable with the way our guys are playing. We think we can match our opponents’ energy and I think that going to be the key tomorrow (today),” he said.