The ManicaPost
Ray Bande
Senior Reporter
TENNIS Zimbabwe will be hosting nine International Tennis Federation (ITF) rated competitions this year in a major boost for local players’ careers, the association’s president, Biggie Magarira has said.
Local tennis players were badly underexposed owing to the limited number of international competitions they partook in.
Only three tournaments under the ITF banner were traditionally hosted by Zimbabwe which later increased to four – two in Bulawayo and the remainder in Harare.
“We are working hard to bring more tournaments to our players here in the country. It is quite expensive to travel outside the country to look for more game time and points. If we bring more ITFs to Zimbabwe it means more of our kids who cannot travel can play in those tournaments. We are glad that we have gained trust from ITF and they have given us more tournaments to host this year despite these Covid-19 challenges.
“We used to have three tournaments and they were increased to four. We have now increased them to nine this year,” said the TZ president in an interview on the sidelines of the commissioning of Mantas Tennis Academy courts at Mutare Girls’ High today.
