One Love Tennis tips Tennis players
Sunday, July 08, 2018
Michael-Ray Pallares after a training session with youngsters at Amahoro Stadium tennis courts last month. Courtesy.

One Love Tennis, a US-based non-profit organization is set to open a program that supports and grooms raw talents in Rwanda. Sunday Sport has learned.

According to Michael-Ray Pallares, the organisation’s founder, they intend to partner with Rwanda Tennis Federation and other partners in the tennis development program.

Pallares, a former Davis Cup player and current ITF Expert Coach revealed the development to Sunday Sport in an interview on Friday following his recent visit to Kigali last month, during which he conducted a couple of training sessions with young players and coaches.

"This was quite an experience for me. It was my first time in Rwanda and I fell in love with the country. This is not my last visit to Kigali for sure,” Pallares said.

 "Rwanda Tennis Federation plans to open a high performance training center, and I intend to be very much involved in the development of players and coaches through various training camps for  top ranked players as well as tutoring coaches,” he added.

During his visit to Kigali, Rwanda Tennis Federation in conjunction with One Love Tennis, organized training sessions at Amahoro Stadium, which brought together ten of the top junior players in the country along with several licensed and non-licensed coaches.

The foundation also donated 250 tennis balls to the federation for training sessions.

One Love Tennis is a non-profit organization based out of the United States, designed to reach underprivileged and low income youth through affordable tennis, education, and fitness.

The founder, Michael-Ray Pallares González, is a veteran professional tennis player from the Dominican Republic. He is also a former member of the Dominican Republic Davis Cup team.

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