Tennis Kenya President James Kenani has said he is assured that the team heading for the Rwanda Open tournament will do the country proud.
He said the team has trained well and it also performed well in local and international tournaments. Kenani said the team’s experience will speak for itself once we see the results.
The 2019 Davis Cup team consisting of Ismael Changawa, Ibrahim Kibet, Kevin Cheruiyot and Albert Njogu will jet out Saturday evening for the Rwanda Open scheduled to kick off on November 24 at Amahoro National Stadium in Kigali.
The weeklong tourney will feature the 19-25-year-olds.
The Kenyans qualified for the promotional play-offs of the 2020 Euro-Africa Group 2 Davis Cup after thrashing Mozambique 2-0 a month ago at the Nairobi Club.
In last year’s event, Changawa outclassed 28-year-old Duncan Mugabe of Uganda in straight sets of 6-1, 6-3 to emerge champion.
“Our game plan is to stay focused on playing our best to add to our ITF ranking points and also take one match at a time without pressure of the finals,” said Changawa.
The Kenyan team will have to look out for Rwanda’s top seed players Olivier Havugimana, Yannick Muvunyi and David Uwimana, who are targeting top honours in the country’s biggest tournament after all of them coming close to the finals in the last competition.
The week-long tourney is organised by Rwanda Tennis Federation under the supervision of the International Tennis Federation.
The competition will also consist of the women’s category where Kenya’s Shufaa Changawa is the defending champion, veteran’s competition, juniors (boys and girls) as well as the wheelchair tennis contest.
In 2017, the international tournament attracted 143 players from Kenya, Uganda, Burundi, Belgium, Italy, Tanzania, Sweden, Nepal, DR Congo, and the hosts.
Kenya Davis Cup head coach Rosemary Owino will be meeting the team later on next week during the main draw.
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