By SANDRA MWILA –
TOP seed Jackson Kalaba yesterday stormed the semi-finals of the Cavmont Bank-sponsored Zambia Tennis Association (ZTA) Under-25 tournament being played at the Lusaka Club.
As Kalaba was making easy meat of his opponents, Patrick Mfumbila got himself disqualified for using vulgar language towards the umpire.
Kalaba booked a place in today’s semi-finals after humiliating Pry Mwanamonga in straight sets in the quarter-finals of 2-6, 6-3, 7-5.
The budding teenager, who is also national team captain, beat Bright Phiri 2-0 (6-0, 6-1) before adding Peter Simbeye on his list of casualties with an identical 2-0 win although he needed a tie breaker to win the first set 7-5 before cruising to a 6-3 in the second set.
Also through to the last four are Mwele Chiwena, Lwanga Lubeta and Frichard Mulenga.
Chiwema sailed through after beating Charles Chiwama 2-0 via a set score of 7-5, 6-3 while in the preliminaries he outclassed Gift Kanganza and Yoram Mutale.
Lubeta beat Steward Ntumba 2-0 (6-2, 6-2) to advance to the quarter-finals where he thrashed Alex Mvula 3-0 (6-2, 5-7, 6-1) while in the second round of the preliminaries he saw off James Chavula 2-0 (6-1, 6-2).
Mulenga picked up a hard-fought 2-1 win over Peter Theo to advance to the semi-finals through set scores of 4-6, 6-1, 8-6.
In the preliminary round, Mulenga was on bye after his opponent from Kabwe failed to show up while in the second round his opponent Mfumbila was disqualified.
Mfumbila was sent off after the three minutes break which he opted to leave the court to take a shower but came back late. When questioned on his late-coming after the three minutes had elapsed, Mfumbila used vulgar language towards the referee.
Meanwhile, the women were by Press time playing their quarter-final matches ahead of the tournament that ends today.