in the forthcoming Africa Junior Tennis Championships to be held in Botswana later this month.
Lock, who is currently based in Pretoria, has been named in the boys’ 18-and-Under category while Nicole Dzenga who was last month ranked Africa’s number one in the girls’ 14-and-Under has also been included in he age-group.
The championships were originally scheduled for Egypt but they were moved to Botswana following the political upheavals that rocked the North African country in January.
The event will now take place from March 29 to April 8.
Lock, Tendai Tapfuma and Innocent Mhere will represent the country in the boys’ category while Pauline Chawafambira and Vimbai Ugaro will battle it out in the girls category.
However, Mhere will only compete in the warm up matches since each country is allowed to field four players in each category.
The 18-and-under teams are selected according to the International Tennis Federation rankings unlike the other age groups who have to compete in the zonal qualifiers.
Ronzai Saurombe and Taremeredzwa Mariga will fight for honours in the 16-and-under boys category while Valeria Bhunu and Thabile Tshatedi will take part in the girls category.
In the 14-and-under age group Zimbabwe, will be represented by Tadiwa Chinamo and Ngoni Chiwewete in the boys category while Dzenga and Karen Muswere will battle it out in the girls section.
Dzenga was last month named as Africa’s number one player for the 14-and-under circuit by the Confederation of African Tennis. The 14-year-old won the Africa Junior Championships zonal qualifiers in Harare in January to qualify for the main event.
Tennis Zimbabwe vice president, Regis Bhunu said they expect the team to excel as most of the players have competed in the championships before.
“We have quite high chances because our players have always done well in all age groups. Our team has more experience and we expect them to do better.
“Last year we had quarter finalists and semi-finalists,” said Bhunu.
The team is set to leave for Botswana on March 28 for the 11-day-event. Richmore Murape and Freeman Nyamunokora are the substantive coaches that will be in charge of the team during the competition.

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