American teenager Tristan Stringer pulled off a shock win against Hady El Kordy, the top seed at the ongoing ITF junior tennis tournament at Integrated Polytechnic Regional College (IPRC-Kigali) tennis grounds in Kicukiro. Egypts Kordy is ranked 191 in the world while Stringer is at 353. It took a third set to decide the match winner after the Egyptian won the first set 7-5 before Stringer replied by winning the next two sets 6-2, 6-4. In the other semifinal, India’s Pranav Karthik cruised to the men’s final after beating Michael Koume of France (7-6 (5) 2-6 6-4). The final between Stringer and Karthik will take place on Friday morning. In the female category, France’s India Fenieys will meet Mariam Ibrahim from Egypt in the finals. All the final games will be played on Friday, including the doubles finals for both girls and boys. The tournament has brought together 83 junior tennis players from 33 countries. The ITF World Tennis Tour is organized by the Rwanda Tennis Federation, International Tennis Federation and Rwanda’s Ministry of Sports. The tournament is meant to provide a launch pad for the best young players to go on and achieve success in the professional game. The top eight juniors at the end of the year go head-to-head at the prestigious season-ending ITF World Tennis Tour Junior Finals.
