A team of six players, comprising four boys and two girls, will represent Rwanda at the upcoming ITF East Africa Junior Circuit U-18 tournament scheduled for November 17-December 6 in Bujumbura, Burundi. The male quartet includes; Ernest Habiyambere, Olivier Havugimana, Fabrice Twishimwe and Etiene Niyigena and the two girls are; Olive Tuyisenge and Chantal Mutuyimana. The players are currently training the Kigali Sports Centre in Rugunga. The team’s head coach Jean Pierre Nshimiyimana explained that, “We are more prepared than we were last year and expect to amass a good number of points. The level of competition is high but we shall do our best.” The tournament that will attract the best junior tennis players from Africa and Europe is a stage for the players to accumulate points to move up in ITF rankings. Havugimana reached the third round last year while David Uwimana, who had played the qualifiers to find his way into the main draw lost in the first round. In January this year, Russian Alexey Nesterov and Portugal’s Mariana Carreira won the boys’ and girls’ categories at the ITF East Africa Junior Circuit U-18 and Junior event hosted in Kenya. Damon Kesaris (South Africa) and Nikolai Manchev (Bulgaria) dominated the boys’ doubles competition while the girls’ pairing of Carreira and Georgia Lawson (Great Britain) clinched the doubles title.
