Over 40 young Tennis players are in Kigali for the fifth edition of the East African Junior Teams Competitions U-12 in search of a ticket to represent the region in the forthcoming continental junior tennis tournament. The tournament, which opens on Wednesday, April 27 and runs until May 1, has attracted junior teams of Tennis players from five countries including Burundi, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania and host nation Rwanda. Teams will compete in two categories, namely both boys and girls, aged below twelve years. The boys’ tourney will bring together 20 participants while the number will be eyeing for a title in the girls’ tourney. According to Valens Habimana, the Secretary General of Rwanda Tennis Federation, teams will have their players competing in singles after which the team that will gather most points in the boys’ category will represent the East African zone at this year’s edition of the 12 & Under African Junior Teams’ Competition (AJTC – 12&U) slated in September in a yet-to-be confirmed country. Meanwhile, two tickets will be up for grabs for two best performing girls’ teams to represent the zone at the 2022 AJTC – 12&U. All games will be played at Kicukiro Tennis Courts. The U-12 qualifiers will be followed by the U-14 and U-16 tourneys, both boys and girls, which will both take place at the same Tennis courts in Kicukiro from May 4-9. Like in the U-12 tourney, one best performing team from each of the boys’ U-14 and U-16 will represent the East African zone in the AJTC-U14 and AJTC-U16 while two best girls’ U-14 teams and two girls’ U-16 teams will represent the zone in the continental tournament.
