Tennis as a game has limited followership here in the country, perhaps because there are many mainstream sports that are more cherished by the others. Despite this, make no mistake, the sport has been around for quite some time and has its own stars that have made strides in the game; and can be looked up to by younger generations who aspire to be professional tennis players. One of such is Joselyne Umulisa, a female tennis player whose career spans 18 years. She also recently embarked on her coaching career. Besides having a story to tell on how she chose the not-so-known sport, the 36-year-old also rose from the tragedies of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi to make a name for herself as one of the best tennis players the country has produced over the last two decades. Umulisa launched her tennis academy last month, and started with 30 girls and boys at Amahoro Stadium tennis courts. Photo: Courtesy. And, she believes, her story can inspire athletes – particularly young ones – across all disciplines. Rising from ashes and early life Born on July 14, 1984 in Kirehe District – of the Eastern Province, Umulisa was born the seventh child from a family of eight; five girls and three boys. At barely 9 years of age, her parents Pièrre Claver Gashumba (RIP) and Godberthe Mukangarambe (RIP), and five siblings were killed during the Genocide against the Tutsi. Umulisa herself suffered back injuries during the genocide, and, in order to recover from the injuries she was recommended to exercise. That is how, she recalls, she tried different sports such as volleyball, athletics, basketball and, to a lesser extent, tennis. Umulisa has been one of the top tennis players in the country since the mid-2000s. Photo: Courtesy. “Doctors ordered me to do sports if I was fully recover from the injuries,” Umulisa told Times Sport in an exclusive interview on Thursday. “At first, I tried many sports but with time the passion for tennis outweighed the others.” The shift towards tennis started taking shape almost instantly, with the help of former tennis player Emmanuel Ngirumpatse. “He said he was impressed by my tennis talent and offered me help to develop it.” Umulisa was in her second year of secondary school when she actively started practicing tennis at Amahoro Stadium’s tennis courts, but it was not an easy undertaking because her guardians did not understand how a girl goes into the game. Joselyne Umulisa reached the semi-finals of the 2019 Rwanda Open last November before winning the Heroes Cup earlier this year. Photo: File. “I lived at my sister’s house, it wasn’t easy for me to play tennis. Hearing that a girl was going into sports was not common and did not make sense for many people.” Against all odds, she soldiered on and, like they say, the rest is history. Committing to tennis In early 2002, Umulisa was approached by Alain Hakizimana, then a tennis coach at Nyarutarama Tennis Club, who proposed her to join his club and start participating in competitions. In June that year, she joined the Rugunga-based club. About three years later, she would land a scholarship to go to Cape Town Academy, in South Africa, where she trained for one year. “One of the club members, Ambassador Frank Mugambage, is one of the people who assisted me to get scholarship to go to South Africa to improve my level. This really helped me a lot.” Upon her return from South Africa, Umulisa had matured into one of the best female tennis players in the country as she started to dominate different local tournaments. All the while, she was also representing Rwanda in various international competitions. Her brilliance on the court and discipline off it would, in 2008, also earn a scholarship to pursue her university studies at the University of Rwanda’s College of Education – formerly Kigali Institute of Education (KIE). Embarking on coaching career After graduating from college in the early 2010s, Umulisa saw her training time significantly diminished as she also juggled a full-time job. Her limited presence in the sport resulted into the rise to the top of younger players such as Megame Ingabire and Gisele Umumararungu who are arguably the two famous names of Rwanda’s women tennis of the last decade. In 2018, Umulisa resigned from her office job to, again, commit herself to tennis. On top of finding enough time for training and competitions, she also earned a Level 1 coaching license. Umulisa was the winner of the 2019 Genocide Memorial Tennis Tournament in June and the Cogebank tennis tournament in August before reaching the semi-finals of the Rwanda Open in November. Earlier this year, she also clinched the Heroes Tennis Cup in women’s singles after dispatching rival Olive Tuyishime in straight sets 7-6 and 6-2. “I have always wanted to be part of tennis development in Rwanda, and there is no better way than shaping the younger generation,” she says. A fortnight ago, Umulisa officially launched her tennis academy with a group of 30 youngsters between 5 to 17 years ago, and the local tennis governing body has pledged ‘all the possible support’ to her initiative. The academy has secured Amahoro Stadium’s tennis courts as its training base.
