By Munyaradzi Madzokere
ZIMBABWE tennis double pair of Benjamin and Courtney Lock saw their quest for a 10th professional title together come to a grinding halt after they lost 6-4 4-6 6-10 to the Greek pair of Michail Pervolarakis and Markos Kalovelonis at the Israel ITF Future tournament yesterday.
Top seeds at the event, the Lock brothers let slip a first set lead and allowed the third-seeded Greeks to take the game to a nail-biting third set tie break finish.
The winners will now play Irishman Julian Bradley and Florian Lakat from France in the double finals today.
Benjamin and Courtney have won nine doubles titles on the ITF Circuit since 2016, and their last coming in Accra Ghana last month.
The pair has won two tournaments this year after they bagged the Egypt Futures in Sharm El Sheikh early this year.
Benjamin (26), who is the older of the two brothers, has a haul of 20 winners medals on the professional doubles tour, while Courtney (23) has nine.
Last week, the Locks, whose dream is to play in the Grand Slams, reached the quarter-finals of a challenger event, the Czech Open, but lost to home favourites Jiri Lehecka and Jiří Veselý in straight sets 6-4 6-0.
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Earlier in the day yesterday, Benjamin crushed out at the quarterfinal stage of the same event in the singles category. He lost in straight sets 9-7 6-4 to Israeli teenager Yishai Oliel.
