Mtengula bows out of tennis
Twenty-one years synonymous with domestic lawn tennis, national head coach Thompson Mtengula has bowed out of the sport on mutual agreement with the Lawn Tennis Association of Malawi (LTAM).
Mtengula and LTAM president Duncan Gumbi confirmed the development on Tuesday.
“I just decided to take a break off lawn tennis. I may bounce in future, but I am currently not working for anyone. I officially quit in December,” he said when asked if he was fired.
Gumbi said Mtengula’s position has since been abolished and there is no caretaker national coach. He said LTAM board arrived at the decision to restructure the tennis position last week.
“We reached a point where we had to part. Currently, there is not acting coach as he did not have an assistant. We have since decided that we should hire a coordinator to be based in Blantyre who will be looking into tennis developments in Blantyre, Lilongwe, Zomba and Mzuzu,” Gumbi said.
The LTAM boss insisted that Mtengula’s exit had nothing to do with his performance, “but he just felt he had enough.”
Mtengula used to work on a monthly rolling contract alongside Haxon Methiwa, but Gumbi insisted that there was no official arrangement with Methiwa.
Mtengula is rated as one of the best domestic lawn tennis players.
