Davis Cup coach upbeat despite odds

MQONDISI DUBE
Staff Writer | Friday April 30, 2010 00:00

Sibanda is leading a team of four players in Morocco where Group III countries are battling for the right to move to Group II. He is upbeat that despite the heavy odds, his players will qualify for Group II.

All the four players are plying their trade locally. The quartet will have to overcome the disadvantage of playing on clay when the tournament starts on Monday. Largely used to all weather courts at home and in the region, the team has had only a week to adapt to clay conditions.

Sibanda and the four players, Shingirai Muzondiwa, Thabiso Mabaka, Lefa Sibanda and Bakang Mosinyi have been in Marrakech, Morocco since Monday.

Yesterday, the coach said on phone that his boys are raring to go and they have been training three times a day.

'We are at the match venue as we speak. The guys are trying to familiarise with clay, they are struggling but they will cope,' Sibanda said.

He said the clay surface is heavier than the hard court, which makes it difficult for players to adjust their movements.

'Clay is heavy and this means we have to train for longer periods. Morale is high and I hope the boys will be able to pull something (out of the bag),' Sibanda said. He added that although it is humid in Morocco, the weather should not be a huge influence. Sibanda said North African countries have an edge over their competitors as they have Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) -ranked players who are used to clay courts. Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria start as favourites in the qualifiers.

The 16 countries in the tournament will be divided into four groups with the top two qualifying for the quarter-finals. The top two teams in the tournament will be promoted to the Euro-Africa Zone Group II.

Sibanda said their initial target will be to qualify from the group stages. 'We want to finish in the top two in our pool, then we will take it from there. It is difficult to set a target as we are not aware of who we will be meeting,' Sibanda said. The draw had not been conducted at the time of going to press.

The Botswana team is made up of relatively experienced players with the trio of Muzondiwa, Mabaka and Sibanda having played in last year's edition of the Davis Cup in Turkey.

The four have played in local and regional tournaments but Sibanda said they do not have enough international exposure. The team did not have sufficient practice matches in the build up to the tournament though it participated in two international competitions in Burundi and Zimbabwe. 'We only had two practice tournaments in Zimbabwe and Burundi and that is not enough,' Sibanda said.

Initially, the Botswana Tennis Association (BTA) spokesperson, Oshinka Tsiang said he wanted the team to play at least six tournaments, with particular emphasis on clay. An envisaged tour to Egypt never materialised and the team will now have to bank on their week's stay in Morocco to get a feel of clay courts.

The player's preparations were hampered by the fact that most of them are students. Thatayaone Kgosimore initially handled the team before Wellington Sibanda took the players to Zimbabwe. Mthandazo Sibanda has been drilling the team ahead of the Davis Cup tournament.

Algeria, Angola, Benin, Botswana, Cameroon, Congo, Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Morocco, Nigeria, Rwanda, Tunisia, Zambia, Zimbabwe will be in the hat when the draw is conducted.