If this is the year for Jean Claude Gasigwa to break his ITF Men’s Futures plague remains to be seen. The country’s seed two is one of eleven local players lined up for the one-week tournament that will be staged at Novotel courts. Gasigwa, who is currently taking part in the Futures’ first leg in Burundi has made three appearances in the money spinning event but has never progressed past the first round. However, after playing some formidable tennis this year, Rwanda Tennis Federation technical director Thierry Ntwali has backed the player to go an extra step this time round. “He fell short last year but I think he has what it takes to progress to the second round this time. He has been playing some cracking tennis lately and I feel that he has got the confidence to give him that extra edge,” Ntwali said. In the absence of Rwanda’s top seed Eric Hagenimana, Gasigwa will lead the country’s assault in the one-week event that is expected to attract a number of world class players. “Already, we have received confirmation from 29 players but we expect that number to increase significantly over the next two days,” Ntwali noted. Last year’s semi-finalist Leonte Bogdan is the tournament’s top seed. The Romanian who boasts of an ATP ranking of 509 is expected to make amends for his semi-final exit last year after falling to eventual winner Matwe Middelkoop from Netherlands. After hosting the tournament five times, Rwanda’s best outing came in 2003 when Hagenimana and Eric Uwamahoro got to the second round. In 2004, Hagenimana teamed up with Allan Hakizimana to reach the second round in the doubles’ category. Heineken, Banque de Kigali (BK) and Novotel are the main sponsors for the $10,000 event. The tournament gets underway this Saturday with a two-day qualification round before five days of real tennis action. Dieudonne Habiyambere and Olivier Nkunda are some of the other local players eager to make their presence felt. After the Kigali leg, players will head to Kampala, Uganda for the third and final leg (September 21-28). Ends
