Thierry Ntwali, the technical director of the Rwanda Tennis Federation has praised Jean Claude Gasigwa after successfully defending the ITF/CAT E.African money circuit Kigali leg title on Sunday.

Gasigwa, Rwanda’s top seed pulled through with a three set victory over Zimbabwe’s Veteran Martin Dzuwa in the men singles’ final.

The 26-year-old started off well with a commanding 6-1 win in the first set but quickly went to pieces in the next set (2-6) as Dzuwa went level.

However, backed by his raucous home fans, Rwanda’s top seed rallied back to claim the decisive set 6-3. Although the win left Ntwali excited, he insisted that he was not very surprised by the outcome.

Like I said before the tournament, I expected him to go all the way. At the moment, when you look around, he is one of the top players in the region. So ideally, you expect him to win such tournaments,” the official said of Gasigwa.

Ntwali also backed Rwanda’s second and third seeds Dieudonne Habiyambere and Olivier Nkunda to shine in the near future.

"They played well although were unlucky at times. But the experience from such tournaments comes in handy for them,” he added.

Ends