Zimbabwe tennis star, Takanyi Garanganga is relishing giving back to the community by imparting his knowledge to disadvantaged children.
BY Garish Phiri
The Zimbabwe Davis Cup team member is on a mission to inspire children to take up the sport and recently spent a day with children from Epworth in an initiative he carried out in partnership with Serve4Africa foundation and Facez Foundation.
He held a one-day coaching clinic at Old Hararian’s Sports Club at the weekend, something he always does when he is in the country.
He is currently participating in the ITF Futures tournament at Harare Sports Club.
Garanganga is a Serve4Africa ambassador, an African tennis non-profit-making foundation, focusing on development of tennis in Southern Africa.
“We had about 20 children between the ages of 12 and 18 most of them were from Epworth, most of them were new to tennis, so we were just exposing them to a different environments” he said. “The main thrust of the clinic was to bake upcoming tennis lovers, to make them have a glimpse of what the sport is all about. I am an ambassador for Serve4Africa, so we do these things, when we have time. We did it recently the before Davis Cup in January. I didn’t do much talking; we were just interacting on day to day things, just telling them about warm-up routines, how to avoid injuries, because I had some too in my carrier, the basic rules about tennis, then how they can play tournaments in Zimbabwe, and federation procedures in registering for local tournaments. They seemed to enjoy the afternoon and the games.” Similar workshops are conducted in the country at most twice a year.
