THE Confederation of Africa Tennis (CAT) has awarded Rwanda rights to host the U18 ITF International Junior Open, which will run from June 25-30, 2018.

The confederation also granted Rwanda to host the Africa General Assemble Meeting (AGM) that to be held in Kigali in April 27-28, according to the Rwanda Tennis Federation (RTF) president Kassim Ntageruka.

"We have started the preparations for the youth players who will compete in the ITF Junior Open and we hope to have better tournament,” Ntageruka told Times Sport.

Ntageruka disclosed that they expected up to 20 countries to take part in the week-long tournament. He noted Rwanda could enter 24 players, 12 in each gender.

Recently, 15 junior players have been in Kenya special training and took part in local competitions, and Ntageruka revealed that they will also have tours around Africa to compete in as many competitions which will help them to get more confidence ahead of the U18 ITF International Junior Open.

The Rwanda Tennis Federation boss added that expect over 80 players representing at least 20 countries, among them Great Britain, USA, India, Kenya, Uganda, Madagascar, Cameroon, Egypt Morocco, Tunisia, Austria, Poland, Serbia, Israel, France amongst others.

If the Junior Open is a success, Rwanda could host the ITF Future Senior Challenge, which will be staged between August and September.

CAT is divided into five zones namely; Zone IV (Eastern Africa), Zone V (Southern Africa), Zone III (Central Africa), Zone II (West Africa) and Zone I (Northern Africa).

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