Rwandan tennis youngster Claude Ishimwe and his Burundian counterpart Malik Abdoul Shakur on Thursday beat British Rio Hannif and Italian Kevin Manuel Jorquela 2-1 to reach the boys doubles final of the ongoing ITF Junior tennis tournament in Kampala, Uganda. The East African duo had a slow start to the game, losing the opening set 5-7 before they made a quick comeback to win two straight sets (7-6, 10-3) to book a ticket to the final. They will now take on Indian duo Vraj Gohil and Aum Parik in the final on Friday. Ishimwe and Shakur, both 16, advanced to the semifinals after eliminating Rwandan duo David Manzi Rwamucyo and Ivan Gift Ngarambe in quarter finals. The Rwanda tennis hopeful is chasing a silverware in at least boys’ doubles after he suffered a shock quarter final elimination in boys’ singles, following a 2-1 (6-2,5-7,7-6) loss at the hands of Indian Charan Vardham In the ITF Junior tennis tournament in Kampala which came to a close on Friday, Uganda is hosting an ITF junior event for the first time in nearly 15 years, a momentum being described as a “watershed moment” for tennis development within the East African nation. Not since December 2009 has an ITF World Tennis Tour Juniors tournament been held in Uganda, yet that long wait ended when back-to-back J30 events were staged in Kampala over the week. It forms part of the ITF’s mission to broaden opportunity and develop tennis around the globe, with this very much evident in Africa where this year more than 110 junior tournaments (22 in East Africa) will be held in excess of 20 nations including Rwanda which hosted two ITF Junior Tennis tournaments between late April and early May. This is a figure which has increased year on year and more starkly of late, with 78 tournaments staged in Africa during 2019 and just 13 across 10 nations a decade ago in 2013.
