Chimedza shines on home soil

Zimbabwe’s upcoming tennis prodigy Sasha Chimedza produced a master class to clinch her first singles title at the International Tennis Federation (ITF) junior tournament this Saturday. The tournament is the first of three-part series which are being hosted by Tennis Zimbabwe at Harare Sports Club.

Sasha Chimedza in action at Harare Sports Club: Photo Credit: Mutambo tv

After a flawless performance in the semifinals where she dismantled Pantelic Sara of Belgium 6-3 6-2 to book a place in the final where she was to play eighth seed VAN ZYL, Marilouise of South Africa who also booked a spot in the finals after beating Tsitsi Mahere of Zimbabwe 4-6 6-3 6-3. The stage was set for an exciting final with Chimedza eying her first Singles title.

Chimedza was dominant and more tactical in the first set, playing a lot of shot varieties, making use of her topspin serve and near-perfect groundstrokes to take the first set 6-2. Things started rather different in the second set with the South African getting an early 2-0 lead. In the third game, The Zimbabwean had a break of serve and went into the interval trailing 2-1. In the fourth game, defiant VAN ZYL broke Chimedza’s serve for the second time in the second set which gave her a 3-1 lead. After a continuous exchange of rallies, Chimedza broke the South African’s serve one more time to reduce the deficit to 3-2. After a solid service game, Chimedza levelled things up at 3-3.

Once more, Chimedza showed a great mantle to dominate her opponent during her service game to break once more and go 4-3 up. VAN ZYLE was exceptional in her return game forcing a lot of unforced errors on Chimedza who gave up her serve to allow an equal 4-4 score. With things evenly squared in the second set, it took Chimedza’s exceptional play to hit the ball in uncomfortable areas and force mistakes in her opponent. This allowed her to dominate the return game and go 5-4 up and serve for the title. Chimedza quickly won the first two points to go 30-0 and took full control of her service game.

However, the defiance in VAN ZYLE allowed her to pull one back, putting some pressure on Chimedza was now 30-15 up. Sensing the smell of victory, Chimedza became more aggressive in the remaining two points of the game to hit two good forehands and win her first singles title.

“Her performance throughout the whole tournament was outstanding and it is great that she has won on home soil”, says the local tennis coach who worked with Sasha Chimedza before she moved base to South Africa – Martin Dzuwa.

The second tournament starts Monday 1 November at Harare Sports club and matches start at 9:30 am.

Story by: Mike Maketho