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Gwinyai Chingoka dies
28 Jan 2022 at 00:55hrs | Views
FORMER Zimbabwe Davis Cup tennis team player, Gwinyai Chingoka, has died.
Chingoka, the son of the late former Tennis Zimbabwe president and ex-president of the Zimbabwe Olympic Committee, Paul Chingoka, died at West End Hospital yesterday morning.
He succumbed to the injuries he sustained after he was hit by a car when he was coming from a private function at Harare Sports Club last week.
He was 38.
Mourners are gathered at No. 5 Cosham Avenue in Borrowdale and burial arrangements will be announced in due course.
Gwinyai was introduced to tennis by his father at a very young age and rose to become one of the top junior tennis players in this country.
This saw him getting a tennis scholarship at Southern Methodist University in Texas, United States, where he also studied for a degree in Economics from 2001 to 2005.
He also scored a first during that period when he was named as the Western Athletic Conference Freshman of the Year for the 2001-02 season.
In 2003, Gwinyai was named in the Zimbabwe Davis Cup team and made only one appearance in this team competition in which he played one singles and one doubles ties, losing both matches for a 0-2 record.
During August of the same year, Gwinyai played in the Dairibord Zimbabwe Open championship where he managed to reach the men's singles semi-finals after upsetting another former Zimbabwe Davis Cup team player, Peter Nyamande, in the quarter-finals at Old Hararians.
In the absence of some of the big names of local tennis, Gwinyai found himself as the top seed at the event and managed to live up to his billing when he stormed into the semi-finals.
After completing his tennis scholarship at Southern Methodist University in 2005, Gwinyai returned home to Zimbabwe where he played the sport for more than six years before he hung up his racket and turned his hand to coaching tennis.
He coached a number of promising junior players, including Claire Kudzai Machisa, who was once a dominant force in the local junior tennis circuit.
At the time of his death, Gwinyai was working for Telecel Zimbabwe and used to coach tennis at Harare Sports Club during the weekends.
His death came barely a month after the passing on of his uncle, former Dynamos striker and basketball player, Douglas Chingoka.
Chingoka, the son of the late former Tennis Zimbabwe president and ex-president of the Zimbabwe Olympic Committee, Paul Chingoka, died at West End Hospital yesterday morning.
He succumbed to the injuries he sustained after he was hit by a car when he was coming from a private function at Harare Sports Club last week.
He was 38.
Mourners are gathered at No. 5 Cosham Avenue in Borrowdale and burial arrangements will be announced in due course.
Gwinyai was introduced to tennis by his father at a very young age and rose to become one of the top junior tennis players in this country.
This saw him getting a tennis scholarship at Southern Methodist University in Texas, United States, where he also studied for a degree in Economics from 2001 to 2005.
He also scored a first during that period when he was named as the Western Athletic Conference Freshman of the Year for the 2001-02 season.
In 2003, Gwinyai was named in the Zimbabwe Davis Cup team and made only one appearance in this team competition in which he played one singles and one doubles ties, losing both matches for a 0-2 record.
During August of the same year, Gwinyai played in the Dairibord Zimbabwe Open championship where he managed to reach the men's singles semi-finals after upsetting another former Zimbabwe Davis Cup team player, Peter Nyamande, in the quarter-finals at Old Hararians.
In the absence of some of the big names of local tennis, Gwinyai found himself as the top seed at the event and managed to live up to his billing when he stormed into the semi-finals.
After completing his tennis scholarship at Southern Methodist University in 2005, Gwinyai returned home to Zimbabwe where he played the sport for more than six years before he hung up his racket and turned his hand to coaching tennis.
He coached a number of promising junior players, including Claire Kudzai Machisa, who was once a dominant force in the local junior tennis circuit.
At the time of his death, Gwinyai was working for Telecel Zimbabwe and used to coach tennis at Harare Sports Club during the weekends.
His death came barely a month after the passing on of his uncle, former Dynamos striker and basketball player, Douglas Chingoka.
Source - the herald
