Beach tennis duo Valens Habimana and Joshua Muhire made history after becoming the first Rwandans to be feature on the International Tennis Federation (ITF) beach tennis' rankings following an impressive performance at the ‘ITF BT10 Ocean Blue' tourney that concluded Malindi- Butwani Beach Waterfront, Kilifi County in Kenya over the weekend. The tournament, which took place for the first time in the East African region, attracted 32 players from different countries including Rwanda, Spain, Uganda, Tanzania, Sudan and hosts Kenya. Habimana and Muhire were making their debut in the tournament but it didn’t stop them from putting up incredible exploits and reached the semi-finals in two various categories, Ocean 1 and Ocean 2, from which they collected 10 points that saw them become the first Rwandan players to appear the ITF-ATP Ranking. “I played together with Muhire, and we managed to reach the semi-finals in all two tournaments, thus earning us a global ranking,” Habimana said. “We are excited to reach this milestone and I hope it gives more Rwandan tennis players to embrace beach tennis because I realized that they can do much better in the sport on the international scene,” he added. The duo lost the semi-finals to Spaniard Navas Borja and Kenyan Mouhamed Fazal. The latter holds a bronze medal at the continental level. They achieved the milestone four years after Rwanda Tennis Federation (RTF) in partnership with International Tennis Federation (ITF) officially launched beach tennis in the country back in December, 2019. According to experts, the sport offers an excellent cardio workout, which is highly aerobic but with low impact to the knees and joints because it is played on the sand. Habimana, who serves as the Secretary General at Rwanda Tennis Federation (RTF), said the federation is now going to build more beach tennis grounds and bring the sport closer to the young tennis enthusiasts so as to produce more players ready to compete in future competitions locally and internationally.
