Rwanda’s number two Tennis player Bertin Karenzi will leave the country on February 15 to start his tennis scholarship program at the Morgan State University in the United States.

Karenzi, an Information Technology student at Integrated Polytechnic Regional Centre (IPRC), secured the scholarship a fortnight ago, joining the University which plays in the first division, where it is currently ranked second in Maryland and fourth in the United States.

The 19-year-old’s performance, while playing for the national team in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt in August last year, attracted the attention of the university’s coach who also had young tennis players at the same tournament.

"He later contacted me via Instagram and asked if I was willing to join the university and play for them,” Karenzi told Times Sport in an exclusive interview.

"It is a dream come true for my career as I have a dream of becoming a professional player.  I am happy to go professional and very grateful for my coaches Aimable Ndejuru and Jean Pierre Nshimiyimana as well as my sponsor Kassim Ntageruka, CEO of Computer Bite, who has been supporting me throughout my tennis career,” the youngster added.

Morgan State University is located in Baltimore, Maryland.

Karenzi, who was in his first year at IPRC, agreed to play for the university for the next four years of his university studies, where he will continue to pursue IT. The deal will be renewed depending on his performance.

The talented tennis hopeful, who started playing tennis at a tender age in 2008, had three more offers that were pending, including one from Mexico and two for USA, but delayed negotiating them because they were from lower divisions until he agreed to join Morgan State University which plays in division one meant for professional tennis players.

"I was not surprised to hear interest from the university because this is the right offer I have been waiting for. I had other offers from other lower divisions but my mind was focused on looking for a new challenge as a professional,” he said.

"My goal is to prove that you can be academically competent and athletically dominant. In my understanding, this scholarship is about multitasking, meaning it is about playing and studying at the same time,” he added.

Karenzi, who sits 1607th in the ITF junior rankings and Number Two in Rwanda, is confident the new challenge will help him improve his performance and push him to better rankings on the ITF World rankings.

He now has a task to help the university win a championship during his four-year spell.