A total of 97 tennis players are expected to participate in the forthcoming Rwanda Open 2022 tennis tournament which kicks off Monday, December 12, at IPRC-Kigali Ecology Tennis Club.
The annual tournament returns after a three-year hiatus. It last happened in 2019. It was postponed twice, in 2020 and 2021, due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Organized by the Rwanda Tennis Federation in partnership with the Ministry of Sports, the tournament will bring together participants from different countries across the world, with host nation Rwanda leading with the highest representation of participants who registered to compete for this year’s edition.
Other countries represented include Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi, Kenya, Nigeria, Germany, United States, Switzerland, India and DR Congo.
Participants who registered for this year’s tournament will compete in three main categories – professionals (singles and doubles), amateurs (singles and doubles) and wheelchair tennis. Women and men will be represented in each of the three categories.
There will be over $30,000 worth of prizes for winners, with cash prizes up for grabs whenever a player qualifies to another stage of the tournament from the preliminaries to the finals.
Men and women professionals will walk away with $2,500 each, up from the $1,000 that winners grabbed when the tournament last happened in 2019.
According to federation president, Theoneste Karenzi, the prizes were increased to attract more international players to the tournament, and making it more competitive.
"What makes this year’s edition so special is that we increased the prizes. The players will be even more motivated because we will be awarding them from every stage they win,” Karenzi said.
He said that, the more competitive the tournament becomes, the more Rwandan tennis players will benefit from it.
Kenyan Ismael Changawa and Rwanda’s Meghan Ingabire are the reigning champions of the Rwanda Open in men and women categories, respectively, having won the tournament in 2019.
Changawa beat compatriot, Kevin Cheriyot, in the final 2-0 (6-1,6-2) to win the men’s title. Ingabire won the women’s silverware after beating Olive Tuyisenge 2-0 (6-1, 6-1).