Players skip K’la tourney

Rwanda 2nd ITF leg Yesterday Singles G. Melzer (Aus) bt. V.Stanislav (Rus) 7-6(8) 6-0DoublesFilenkov/Vovk (Rus) bt. Leonte (Rom)/Middelkoop (Ned) 2-6 6-4 (13-11) RWANDAN tennis players will not take part in the third leg of the ITF Men’s Futures which starts tomorrow in Kampala due to financial constraints. Meanwhile, Austria’s Gerald Melzer beat Vovk Stanislav of Russian 7-6(8), 6-0 to win the second leg men’s Singles’ final, while Filenkov paired with Vovk to beat Leonte and Middelkoop 2-6 6-4 (13-11) to win the doubles’ category. Melzer also won the first leg in Burundi last week. The local team led by top seed Jean Gasigwa, Dieudonne Habiyambere, Melee Bizimana, Olivier Nkunda and Mathieu Uwizeyimana have confirmed they will not travel to Kampala for the third and final leg of the three-week long tournament following a poor outing in the Kigali edition which ended yesterday. Local second seed Habiyambere told Sunday Sport yesterday, “We had wild cards to take part in the Kampala edition but we’re not traveling, some due to personal problems, others because of their poor performances in the Kigali tournament.” He added, “We didn’t prepare adequately for this tournament (Kigali leg) and going to Kampala would be wastage of the little (resources) that we have. Let’s focus on how we do next year.” Top seed, Gasigwa said, “I would have loved to compete in the third leg but financial constraints forced me to skip the tournament.” The Rwandan tennis federation technical director Thierry Ntwali said that he had secured wild cards for some players to compete in the Kampala leg but players decided ruled out participation in the tournament which has a $10.000 cash prize staked by the international tennis federation. The local players failed to qualify from the first round of the main draw in the Kigali which was won by Austria’s Melzer.Habiyambere lost to Russian opponent Vovk Stanislav 1-6 1-6 and Gasigwa lost to South Africa’s Ruan Roelofse 1-6, 2-6 in the first round. The other remaining trio of Bizimana, Nkunda and Uwizeyimana were eliminated in the qualifying round. Since 2002 when the first edition of the ITF Men’s Futures was played in Rwanda, only four players local have made it to the second round and they include; Eric Hagenimana, Allan Hakizimana, Eric Uwamahoro and Olivier Nkunda. Ends