Despite pulling out of the ongoing Africa Junior Tennis Championships in Kenya due to an ankle injury on Friday, lawn tennis whiz-kid ChisomoLumeta has qualified for this year’s International Tennis Federation (ITF) World Junior Championships and Junior Davis.
This will be the first time Malawi will have a representative at the two prestigious events that are regarded as platforms where scouts and top companies identify athletes for sponsorship upon graduation into the professional ranks.
The World Junior Championships will take place at the TK Plus Centre in Prostejov, Czech Republic from August 4-9 while the Davis Cup will be conducted at the TBC in Spain from September 23-28.
The 15-year-old has grabbed the opportunity following his outstanding performance during the African Championships where he finished in the semi-finals in the Under-16 boys singles and doubles categories.
Currently, according to the Lawn Tennis Association of Malawi (Ltam) publicist TadalaKandulu, a doctor has given Lumeta a week to recuperate from the ankle injury he suffered while playing against Zimbabweans in doubles semi-finals.
“His qualification into the two prestigious events is quite a big relief for both Lumeta and the country considering that we never had a representative at both contests in the past. We are hopeful that he will make Malawi proud,” Kandulu said about Lumeta who is based at the ITF Training Centre in Morocco.
Lumeta, who won the Southern Africa Junior Circuit Championships in Botswana recently, is ranked number two in Africa and 343 in the world in the Under-16 boys category. There are over 2 000 ranked players in his category in the world.
