Rwandan and French tennis federations on Thursday, May 29, signed a memorandum of understanding after the two parties agreed to partner in various areas of tennis development.
The event took place on the sidelines of the 2024 French Open, also widely known as Roland Garros, which Rwandan Tennis governing body (RFT) president Theoneste Karenzi is attending.
The tournament started at Roland-Garros Stadium in Paris from May 26 and will run until June 9.
During his stay, Karenzi met his French Tennis Federation (FFT) counterpart Gilles Moretton where the two signed an agreement of partnership through which the two federations are committed to exchanging experiences aimed at taking the sport to another level.
When Rwanda for the first time hosted the ATP Challenger 50 Tour in Kigali from February 26 to March 10, French Tennis Federation (FFT) sent an official to attend the competition after which she met Karenzi for potential partnerships.
Karenzi was in turn invited by the same federation to attend Roland Garros where he met to sign the partnership agreement. He was flanked with FRT Technical Director Eric Uwamahoro Bimenyimana.
Also at Roland Garros are two Rwandan ball kids who are serving balls at the tournament and Desire Ngurusu, the only Rwandan umpire holding a white badge in tennis refereeing. He is also serving as an official or line judge at Roland Garros.
"The French Tennis federation sent delegates to Rwanda not only to attend the ATP Challenger 50 Tour. They also wanted to see how we can cooperate in tennis,” Karenzi told Times Sport.
"The memorandum of understanding that we signed today is a result of our discussions during their visit. We hope Rwandan tennis will benefit a lot from this partnership.”
Through the partnership, Karenzi hopes that Rwanda will learn a lot from French expertise in tennis infrastructure and organising tennis tournaments, development of players, training coaches and match officials among other aspects.
"The partnership was signed and we want it to be put into place immediately because we believe it will be beneficial to Rwandan tennis,” Karenzi said.
Karenzi is convinced that, besides hosting one of the best tennis tournaments in the world, France produces and has good tennis officials and "I hope the partnership can help our match officials learn a lot from their experience in officiating international competitions.”
"We also look forward to opportunities to have our young players trained at their academies. We could see our teams travel to France to prepare for international competitions in France or even see partnerships between clubs from both countries,” he added.
As Rwanda continues to establish itself as a preferred MICE destination, RFT has over the recent years organised a number of international competitions including the ATP Challenger 50 Tour.
Karenzi believes, through the partnership, there is a lot that Rwanda can learn from a country like France, which hosts Roland Garros, to be able to stand a chance to host bigger international competitions.
"Organizing competitions is part of potential components that help in securing rights to host international competitions. So France not only has expertise to host big tennis events but they also have a big network that we can benefit from in a way or another,” he said.