All Rwandan junior tennis players who were competing at the ongoing ITF Junior tournament in Kigali have been knocked out of the competition. A total of 16 Rwandans (12 boys and 4 girls) joined 85 other junior players from 35 countries for the second leg of the tournament but none of them has managed to qualify for the first round draw of the tour. All hopes relied on Rwandan-Swiss based youngster Lia Kaishiki Mosimann but she was on Monday beaten by Iranian Fatemeh Sadat Zanjani in three straight sets 6-4, 7-6, 8-6 (tie break). Rain disrupts ITF matches. Meanwhile, heavy rains led to the disruption of match fixtures and this has prompted the Rwanda Tennis Federation (RTF) to shift some of the matches from the current venue, Integrated Polytechnic Regional College (IPRC-Kigali) tennis grounds in Kicukiro to Remera stadium tennis courts. Valens Habimana, the tournament director however to Times Sport that everything will go as planned and they hope to finish the tournament as earlier planned on Friday, February 25 . “We had many tennis courts ready to hold the matches if anything went wrong. Currently, we are playing some games at Remera stadium and we expect to fully return to the IPRC-Kigali for the quarterfinals, semis and finals” Habimana said in an interview. After round one draw, the competition will embark on the second round matches on Tuesday, then quarterfinals, semis and the final game which will be played Friday. 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.
