The second leg of the ITF Junior tourney got underway on Saturday, 19 February, at Integrated Polytechnic Regional College (IPRC-Kigali) tennis grounds in Kicukiro. According to Valens Habimana, the tournament director, the second leg is meant to give a chance to young tennis players who failed to get enough points to improve their rankings. “We planned a two-legged tournament to give an opportunity to local and international junior players a chance to get more points so that their ITF rankings increase and also to give a chance to those who failed to win matches in the first leg” Valens Habimana (centre) poses with the winners of the boys doubles final, Seungmin Park (R) of South Korea and Pavan Uppu from the USA. at IPRC-Kigali tennis courts. A total of 85 players from 34 countries will take part in the second leg of the ITF Junior tournament. The first leg of the tour kicked off on February 12 and came to a climax on Friday, February 18, with American youngster, Tristan Stringer taking the boys’ singles trophy while Egypt’s Mariam Ibrahim emerged winner in the girls’ category. The boys’ doubles final was won by Seungmin Park (South Korea) and Pavan Uppu (USA) while the girls doubles final was won by Manal Ennaciri (Morocco) and India Fenieys (France). 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.
