Burundi’s rising tennis star, Allan Gatoto, secured a spot in the semi-finals of the ITF World Tennis Tour Juniors/Grade 4 tournament after his opponent, Shixun Zhu of China, was forced to withdraw mid-game due to injury on Thursday, August 15. ALSO READ: Tennis: All Rwandan players bow out of world juniors’ tourney Gatoto had lost the first set of the game to Zhu, but the Chinese player was unable to continue at the beginning of the second one. In the other quarterfinal matches, Greece’s Lason Lykos overcame Canadian Jay Lin Gibson with a 6-1, 6-4 victory to advance to the semi-finals. Meanwhile, Poland’s Wiktor Jez defeated India’s Dhruveer Grover 6-4, 6-1, and China’s Zhan Hang Ye secured his place in the last four by beating Poland’s Juliusz Stanczyk 6-4, 6-4. The tournament, reserved for players under 18, runs from August 12 to 24, with matches scheduled across two weeks—August 12-17 and August 19-24. Rwanda’s participation saw ten players—eight boys and two girls—compete, but unfortunately, none advanced past the first preliminary round. The ITF World Tennis Tour Juniors/Grade 4 tournament offers young players the opportunity to earn points toward their professional rankings, with 60 points awarded to the winner, 36 points to the runner-up, 18 points to semi-finalists, 10 points to quarterfinalists, and five points to players who reach the round of 16.
