Rwanda’s Claude Ishimwe will return home with at least a silverware after he and his Burundian counterpart Malik Abdoul Shakur beat Indian duo Vraj Gohil and Aum Parik Hermassi 2-1 during Friday’s boys’ doubles final to clinch the title and conclude their ITF Junior tennis campaign in Kampala, Uganda in style. READ ALSO: Ishimwe, Shakur advance to ITF Junior tennis doubles final Ishimwe and Shakur, both 16, took the opening set 6-3, but Hermassi and Gohil fought back to win the second 3-6 before the East African duo made a massive turnaround in the third set winning it by 10-5 to be crowned the 2023 champions. Ishimwe now feels happier with a boys’ double trophy after he suffered a shock quarter final elimination in boys’ singles, following a 2-1 (6-2,5-7,7-6) quarter final loss at the hands of Indian Charan Vardham. The just-concluded tournament was the first ITF junior event that Uganda was hosting in 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.
