Lumeta moves up further

Lawn tennis whizkid Chisomo Lumeta has moved 119 steps up on International Tennis Federation (ITF) owing to his outstanding performance at last week’s Southern Africa Junior Circuit Championships in Gaborone, Botswana.

In Botswana, the 15-year-old grabbed a gold medal in the Under-16 boys’ category with eight-straight victories, including a 6-4, 6-2 triumph over South African C. Jordan in the finals.

Following the satisfying results, he has so far perfected his rating from 469th place to position 350 on the ITF world junior players rankings table, which has over 2 000 registered players.

The lad, who is based at the ITF High Performance Centre (HPC) in Morocco, has leapfrogged 812 steps on the ITF ladder since early 2013 when he was on position 1 162. From last June, Lumeta enhanced his class by 554 steps. Then, he was ranked 904.

Lumeta told The Nation last month that he wanted to be among the top 100 junior tennis players in the world by the end of this year and it seems he is on the right track to achieve his goal.

“My goal is to be among the top 100 junior players by the end of 2014. I performed well for the last six months, but I am still not satisfied. I want to be among the best of the best,” he was quoted as saying on December 23, 2013.

Lumeta will take part in the ITF Juniors Tennis Club Hamman-Sousse Championships in Tunisia from January 28 to February 1 before getting into the ITF Juniors Hammamet event in the same country a week later. He will also travel to Morocco for another ITF tournament from February 10-15. Early March, he will battle for glory in the Under-18 African Junior Championships in Morocco.

Lawn Tennis Association of Malawi (LTAM) president Francis Mwansa said on Tuesday he was proud of Lumeta’s rise on the world’s lawn tennis ladder, saying it will inspire his compatriots.