Pure elastic scattering cross sections for the systems58Ni+90,94Zrhave been measured at energies of 247.5 and 232.5 MeV, making use of the ENMA spectrograph which is particularly suited for heavy‐ion reactions. Also the differential cross sections for the excitation of the first 2+inelastic state of58Niin the58Ni+90Zrcombination were extracted. Simple coupled channel calculations successfully reproduce the data at 247.5 MeV while some improvement is needed for the lower energy. Calculations with the code CC‐FUS, based on the real optical model parameters extracted from the elastic scattering measurements, are compared with the previously measured fusion cross sections at energies near and below the Coulomb barrier.