Three Rwandan tennis players Etienne Niyigena, Junior Hakizumwami and Ernest Habiyambere are among four players who were granted wild cards to take part in the first week of the 2023 Rwanda Open M25 tournament which is underway in Kigali, Rwanda.
The annual tournament, which will take place within two weeks, from September 4-10 and September 11-17 at Kigali Ecology Tennis Club, returns to Kigali after the same city hosted a successful edition in 2022.
The tournament used to bring together tennis players from Rwanda and the region but, after adding it to the ITF World Tennis Tour "Futures" calendar, organisers (Rwanda Tennis Federation) opened doors to professional tennis players from across the globe as per of making it more competitive.
A host of professional tennis players have not only shown interest but also confirmed their participation in the competition since it gives points to the ATP ranking as well increased prize money.
There were four wild cards up for grabs. Three went to the players of the host nation based on their performances in the recent competitions, while the remaining wild card was granted Kenyan Kevin Cheruiyot.
The four players joined 28 other players in the first round.
Besides four wild cards granted, 20 top ranked players traveled to Kigali with a ticket straight to the first round after they were exempted from the preliminary stages due to the fact that they are ranked below 1000 on ITF/ATP ranking while eight others were made to play the preliminary games on Sunday and Monday for them to progress to the first round which kicks off Tuesday.
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Niyigena will be the first Rwandan representative to play the first round in men's singles where he will take on French Corentin Denolly on Tuesday, September 5 before teaming up with Cheruiyot for a round of 16 men's doubles match against Italian Guelfo Baldovinetti and Indian Raghav Jaisinghani on the same day.
Meanwhile, Hakizumwami will start competing in the round of 16 in men's doubles. The youngster, 16, will be paired with Zimbabwean Takura Mhwandagara for a round of 16 encounter with Indian duo Siddhant Banthia and Sai Karteek Reddy Ganta.
The winner of each of the first week of the competition will get 25 points and the same will apply to the winner of the second week. Also, organisers injected $25,000 worth of cash prizes to be awarded to top eight players in each of the first and second week of the competition.
American Olivier Crawford is the highest ranked of all players who are expected to take part in the competition. He is ranked 295th on the ITF World Ranking.
Kenyan duo Albert John Njogu and Angela Okutoyi were crowned Rwanda Open 2022 champions after they beat compatriots Ismael Changawa and Riselida Asumwa in the finals respectively.
