TWO players have been named to take part in the Africa Junior Tennis Championships, which starts on Wednesday in Cairo, Egypt.The local tennis federation boss Theoneste Karenzi told Times Sport yesterday that the duo includes Olivier Havugimana and Ernest Habiyambere and they will be coached by Eric Uwamahoro.Full of fire and personal inspiration, Havugimana aged 16 left for Cairo yesterday were he will join Habiyambere, who arrived there on Monday.“Havugimana is the best junior locally while Habiyambere was picked from the regional training centre in Burundi. We are optimistic they will give us a good representation,” added Karenzi.North Africa teams have for long dominated the championships with occasional surprises from South Africa and Zimbabwe.The African Junior Championships is one of the most prestigious competitions in Africa. Introduced in 1978 to encourage greater competition in Africa, the inaugural African Junior Championships attracted four nations but the event has grown so much that last year, 159 players from 26 African nations took part in the event.Last year, Rwandans were bundled out in the preliminary rounds with the best finisher reaching the round of 16.The African Junior Championships also counts as the African regional qualifying event for the Junior Davis Cup and Junior Fed Cup by BNP Paribas and the World Junior Tennis Competition, the ITF international team competitions for players of under 16 and 14 cadre.
