The local tennis governing body, RTF has budgeted Frw22m for this year’s Confederation of African Tennis (CAT) U-14 tennis circuit. The continental event, which is a new project of the CAT, is set to run from July 11-19 at Cercle Sportif sports arena.

The tennis federation’s technical director Thierry Ntwali yesterday disclosed that Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Burundi and Somalia had all confirmed participation while Sudan, Ethiopia and Eritrea were still probable participants.

Ntwali also announced that they (federation) had covered 30 percent of the Frw22m budget coming from Rwandatel (Frw3.5m), Rwanda Development Bank (Frw1m), Sonarwa, Sorwathe and Novotel.

After handing over the Frw3.5m cheque, Rwandatel Marketing manager Victor Kinuma said that the telecommunications company was honored to associate themselves with tennis and Rwandan sport in general. 

Ntwali also said, "We are very grateful to Rwandatel and BRD for their support. It came in handy”. However, the federation expects more funding from UNICEF and a couple of other local corporate companies.

"We still hope for more support from different companies but should we fail to raise the budget, we shall have to trim it down,” Ntwali noted. Overall, Rwanda is expected to field nine players in the ten-day tournament.

"We shall have nine boys and three girls at the event,” the tennis official added.

The CAT event will have two tournaments in one. The first tournament will run from July 11-15 while the second event is programmed from July 16-19.

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