South Korea's Seungmin Park and American Pavan Appu on Friday, February 25, beat Tunisians Rayen Hermassi and Skander Mezouar 2-1 sets (6-3 3-6 10-3) to clinch the boys’ doubles final of the ITF Junior tourney that concluded at Integrated Polytechnic Regional College (IPRC-Kigali) tennis grounds in Kicukiro.
The champions met a fortnight ago and formed a good partnership from the first leg of the tourney, which they also won.
"I was so nervous coming into this tournament and it was my first time taking part in the doubles. Going home with two titles is good for me and my career. I think my best strategy was to partner with Pavan,” Park told Times Sport after the victory in the final.
Ennaciri Manal from Morocco and Finieys India from France won the girls' doubles final. / Courtesy
The Korean Tennis prospect was impressed about how the tournament was organized, especially the clay grounds from which he won the tournament.
"I loved the organization. The clay is very good here (IPRC-Kigali) and so is the food. I hope to return here very soon,” he said.
His compatriot Pavan Appu came to the tournament without a ranking on the ITF rankings and hailed Park for his commitment to work as a team despite having difficulty communicating during the match.
"I am happy to go back home with a ranking. My partner [Park] made matches much easier during our partnership, we hadn’t played together before but we immediately kicked off a friendship even though we don’t speak the same language”
In the girls’ doubles final, Ennaciri Manal (Morocco) and Finieys India (France) beat Great Britain’s Cole Jadesola and Mariam Ibrahim from Egypt 6-3 6-17-6 (5) 6-1.
The ITF World Tennis Tour is organized by the Rwanda Tennis Federation, International Tennis Federation and Rwanda’s Ministry of Sports.
The tournament is meant to provide a launch pad for the best young players to go on and achieve success in the professional game.
A total of 85 players from 34 countries participated in the tournament and the top eight juniors at the end of the year go head-to-head at the prestigious season-ending ITF World Tennis Tour Junior Finals.