OVER 80 local tennis players are expected to take part in the inaugural Cogebanque Tennis Open that starts on Monday at Cercile Sportif de Kigali tennis courts in Rugunga. The two-week event that will be organised by Cercile Sportif de Kigali with Cogebanque as main sponsors was launched Sunday. Competitors at the tournament will be in three categories; amateurs, professionals and ladies.
OVER 80 local tennis players are expected to take part in the inaugural Cogebanque Tennis Open that starts on Monday at Cercile Sportif de Kigali tennis courts in Rugunga.
The two-week event that will be organised by Cercile Sportif de Kigali with Cogebanque as main sponsors was launched Sunday. Competitors at the tournament will be in three categories; amateurs, professionals and ladies.
"The open is meant to develop the sport of tennis in the country and we hope it will increase awareness of the tennis as well as attracting the young generation into playing the game,” said the chairman of the tennis club Maj. Gen. Jean Bosco Kazura
Lt. Col. Patrice Rugambwa, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Sports and Culture (MINISPOC) urged the tennis club to maintain the good partnership with sponsors as one of the ways to increase tennis tournaments competitions and improve the level of the sport in the country.
"If you (Tennis club) increase on the tennis tournaments you organise, it will increase on the awareness of the public on the sport therefore maintaining the good partnership with the sponsors so that you can stage even more professional events in the future,” he said
Rwanda’s top tennis stars Ernest Habiyambere, Dieudonne Habiyambere, Olivier Havugimana in the men’s category and Gisele Umumararungu and Megane Ingabire in the ladies’ group are among the top layers fighting for the inaugural title.