NICOLE Dzenga raised the nation’s flag high when she beat Namibia’s Sedi Jacobs in three sets to win the girls’ Under-16 singles title at the ITF Southern African Junior Championships on Saturday.
Report by Vitalis Moyo
In an exciting and tough encounter, Dzenga prevailed to win the match 6-0, 3-6, 7-5.
Dzenga, the only Zimbabwean to reach the final in the tournament, stormed into the final after beating Lize Moolman of Namibia 6-2, 6-2 and then cruising past Madagascar’s Jackinah Rakotoha 6-2, 6-3.
Another Zimbabwean, Keren Muswere, appeared well on course to the final when she beat Ritumetse Metso of Lesotho 6-3, 6-1 in the same category before falling to Jacobs 6-2, 6-2 in the semi-finals.
Zimbabwe came close in the rest of the categories with most players making it to the semi-finals.
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In the boys’ Under-16 category, both Zimbabwe’s representatives bowed out of the tournament without reaching the finals.
Fourth seeded Alwyn Mushonga lost to Brandon Laubser of South Africa 6-3, 7-5 in the semi-finals, while Julius Mthethwa lost to another South African Lloyd Harris 6-1, 6-0. Harris went on to beat compatriot Laubser 3-6, 6-3, 6-1 in the final.
In the girls’ Under-14 category, Kimberly Bhunu beat Namibia’s Sylvia Schultz 6-4, 6-0 before being knocked out by Lee Barnard of South Africa, while her compatriot Keren Machisa, who beat Priscilla Mayuka of Zambia 7-5, 6-3, suffered the same fate at the hands of another Barnard twin Zani.
The Under-14 girls final saw yet another all South African affair as top-seeded Lee beat her twin sister Zani 6-3, 6-4.
Mehluli Sibanda was also knocked out before reaching the final in the boys’ Under-14 category when he lost to Richard Thongoana of South Africa who went on to win in the final, beating top-seeded Andritovina Ratsimandres of Madagascar 6-3, 7-5.
In the boys’ Under-12 category, second-seeded Valentine Munyariwa failed to progress to the final after he lost his semi-final match 6-1, 6-4 to third seeded Barnabas Kalaba of Zambia.
In the same category, fourth-seeded Tinashe Hwata beat Benjamin Calitz of Namibia 6-1, 7-6 before going on to lose in the semi-finals against Tsholofelo Tsiang of Botswana.