RWANDA’s junior tennis team’s poor performance in the first leg of the ITF East African Junior Circuit which climaxed last Sunday in Burundi’s capital, Bujumbura has been blamed on tough draw.

For the first time in five years, Rwanda with four players in the tournament (Gisele Umumararungu and Kiza Sidawusi, Mathieu Uwizeyimana and Cekina Niyonshuti) failed to have a player in the second round. However, Thierry Ntwali, the technical director of the national tennis federation (RTF) was quick to come to their defence.

"The draws did not favour them. They played against top players at the very first asking. Two of them (Uwizeyimana and Sidawusi) were drawn against the tournament’s top seeds while the other pair also played opponents with superior experience and ATP rankings,” said Ntwali.

The official however, believes that the team can still bounce back in the second leg which got underway yesterday in Kampala.

"If the draws are fair, then they stand a chance to get to the second round and may be the third round,” he noted.

Like in the first leg, on top of players from the region; Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Burundi and Rwanda, players from South Africa, Slovakia, Madagascar, Zimbabwe, Egypt, India and Iceland among others are also in contention.

The circuit winds up next week with the third and final leg in Nairobi, Kenya.

Ends