Egyptian Tennis prospect Hady El Kordy and Arina Valitova of St Kitts and Nevis were crowned champions of the ITF Junior singles tourney that concluded on Friday, February 25, at Integrated Polytechnic Regional College (IPRC-Kigali) tennis grounds in Kicukiro.
Pre-tournament favorite Kordy beat Tunisian Yazid Lahjomri in two sets (6-1, 6-4) in the final to clinch the boys’ singles title, in one of the fastest finals at the tournament.
Kordy is the top ranked junior player at the tournament but admitted that Lahjomri was not easy to beat, especially during the first set, despite the fact that he was regarded as the tournament favorite from the start.
"The feeling is actually good, I have been working hard throughout this week, different from last week. I’ve been building up my game and I leveled up my tennis and that’s why I had a good feeling I could win this game,” the Egyptian said.
"I had a tough opponent today, he is a top player but I tried to hold my serves. I did my best on this and, luckily, I did it,” he added.
It was, however, not a lucky result for Kordy’s Egyptian counterpart Mariam Ibrahim who lost the girls’ singles final to Arina Valitova (St Kitts and Nevis) by 3-0 sets (6-4, 4-6, 7-6(4).
Arina Velitova from St Kitts and Nevis poses with the Girls’ single’s trophy at IPRC Kigali-courtesy
"I feel that every opponent at this tournament was very good and I want thank the referees for doing a good job. My coaches and parents did well to send me here for this. Kigali is a good host. I have been here before (2018) but this year the organization of the tournament was better.” Valitova said after the win.
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.