Amateur Tennis trio Evelyne Dinah Kwizera, Innocent Rukundo and Cyrille Ndengeyingoma each added 50 crucial points to their ranks after coming out on top from their respective categories during the just-concluded Nyarutarama Tennis Club Masters50.
Organized by Nyarutarama Tennis Club during the Easter holidays, the four-day Masters 50 forms part of mini competitions that feature on NTC’s calendar year tournaments which, according to organisers, helps players to increase their points mark.
Three best performing players bagged prizes in three various categories namely men, women and seniors (aged above 60 years).
The Masters 50 finals held at NTC court on Monday, April 1, saw Ndengeyingoma win the seniors competition after beating Emile Damien Ngabonziza 6-2, 6-2 in the final. In men’s category, Rukundo emerged winner after beating Peter Karake 7-5, 6-2 in the final while Kwizera took home to prize in ladies category after beating Jasmine Uwamwezi 9-4 in the final.
On top of a trophy, every winner from each of the three categories of the Masters 50 garnered 50 points which were added on NTC’s current ranking.
According to Nyarutarama Tennis Club president Bart Gasana, the competition enables individuals currently playing tennis at the club to increase their point mark by challenging those ahead of them.
"This time around we organized the masters where the highest get 50 points. We have close to 50 people participating and they are all members of our club."
"The points be added to the ranking in the main seeding. We will continue to organize these side masters which will fit into the seeding...which keeps the dynamism and rhythm of the competition among participants,” Gasana told Times Sport.
"As a club, we have year round activities, we just organised this challenge tournament to keep our club active. The main competition is the seeding where people are ranked in their groups all year round. Because the year is long, in-between, we organised this mini competition," he added.
The Masters 50 brought together players who are normally members of the NTC. Close to 50 players took part in the competition which has been running during the Easter holidays since Friday, March 29.
Besides in house competition, Nyarutarama Tennis Club also organizes open tournaments especially those which are sponsored.
Some include Genocide Memorial tournament, NTC-Serena Rubavu tournament which comes off in September and inter-country tournament with Kampala Tennis Club which will this time take place in April, precisely after the commemoration of Genocide against the Tutsi.