2009 Davis Cup

Venue-Turkey
Group 3 (Euro-Africa): Estonia, Greece, Iceland, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Botswana, Turkey and Rwanda

Rwanda’s Davis Cup bound team is expected to start non-residential training camp next week at Amahoro courts.

The six-man team includes Rwanda’s top seed Jean Claude Gasigwa, Olivier Nkunda, Dieudonne Habiyambere, Mele Bizimana, Mathew Uwizeyimana and Cekina Niyonshuti and according to Thierry Ntwali, the technical director of the Rwanda Tennis Federation (RTF), the team will be trimmed down to four at the end of the training camp.

This year, Rwanda is seeded in Group three (Euro-Africa) alongside Estonia, Greece, Iceland, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Botswana and hosts Turkey.

The teams will be divided into pools were the top two teams in each pool will advance to a ‘promotion’ pool of four teams from which the top two sides will progress to  Europe/Africa Group 2.

On the other hand, the bottom two teams in each pool advance to a ‘relegation’ pool were the last two sides drop to Group IV.

In 2007, Rwanda were relegated to Group 4 but battled their way back to Group 3 last year after finishing 4th in Armenia.

Rwanda has never broken into Group 2 but Ntwali and the team are desperate to go an extra mile in Turkey.

Davis Cup is the premier international team event in men’s tennis. It is contested between teams of players from competing countries in a knock-out format.

The world’s 16 best national teams are assigned to the world group while nations outside the world group (like Rwanda) compete in one of three regional zones (Americas, Asia/Oceania, and Europe/Africa).

Ends