A total of over 150 Tennis players from local and regional countries have graced this year’s ongoing Tennis Genocide Memorial tournament that started Wednesday and will run until June 5 at Amahoro Tennis courts.

Happening for the fourth time since 2013, the five day long tournament is one of the memorial events organized by national sports federations in Rwanda every year in June in honour of players, coaches, administrators and fans of their respective sports disciplines killed during the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.

Speaking to Times Sport in an interview, Rwanda Tennis Federation (RTF) Valens Habimana revealed that this year’s event have attracted several tennis players and officials from Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda with the majority number composed of local tennis players.

"The tournament is very well organized and each category in amateurs, professionals and double will be represented and we hope to have a successful event as we honor our beloved ones,” said HabimanaAccording to Habimana, the amateurs’ category is comprised of a total of 96 players with 64 affiliated in the men’s category while the rest 32 are in the ladies’ category. The professionals’ category has also attracted a total of 48 players where 32 are competing in the men’s category with 16 competing in the ladies’ category.

Last year, local stars Dieudonne Habiyambere now seed three and seed one Megane Ingabire won the titles in the men and ladies categories respectively.

The 2016 commemoration has been marked under the theme "Let us commemorate the Genocide against Tutsi fighting genocide ideology.”

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