Ray Bande
Senior Reporter
MUTARE upcoming tennis ace, Tashinga Mtisi, continues outplaying opponents of his age group when he won the Under-14 category of the Universal Tennis Rating tournament played at Old Hararians Sports Club in Harare last weekend.
The St Dominic’s High School Form One pupil has won several accolades from junior age group competitions and his tempo was only disturbed by the Covid-19 layoff.
Mutare-based Mantas Tennis Academy coach, Vincent Nyatoti, commended the youngsters for a fine display in the just-ended tournament.
“As Mantas Tennis Academy, we are excited about the return of competitions after the long Covid-19 layoff. The good thing is that the players are not really showing signs of having lost much stamina and skill during the layoff.
“We had 10 participants from Manicaland participating in the Universal Tennis Rating tournament held in Harare last weekend and they gave a good account of themselves, with some of them settling for the first position especially Tashinga Mtisi and Tinotenda Chipfakacha who both collected first prizes in the Under-14 boys and girls respectively,” said Nyatoti.
Sunday’s tournament was a continuation of a series of Universal Tennis Rating tournaments after two that were held in Harare in December last year and the other one Kwekwe recently.
A total of 10 players who include Chipfakacha, Thandiwe Nkala, Rachel Mhizha, Shantel Lunga, Mtisi, Tendekai Musabaeka, Strive Bosha, Tatenda Chiwenga, Kudakwashe Ndiringepi and Tendai Chihowa took part in the recent competition.
Nyatoti said there are a number of upcoming tournaments to be hosted in Mutare.
He said some senior age group participants based in Mutare could not travel to last weekend’s tournament due to their educational commitments.
“We have already lined up a number of competitions to be played in Mutare and we hope to be getting big numbers in terms of participants. One thing that militated against us fielding a big number in last weekend’s tournament is that most of our senior age group players were tied up with their school work,” said Nyatoti.