ITF

34 Summer 2021 ITF World BURUNDI Burundi has been the most active nation across East and Central Africa during the Covid-19 pandemic. It is a country which has not been under any form of lockdown and Federation de Tennis du Burundi has this year run a series of successful tennis festivals. The festivals were held in the capital city Bujumbura in February and then also in the provinces of Gitega, Kirundo and Muyinga. The festivals were well attended with more than 300 kids participating – a really impressive initiative for which the national association deserves enormous credit. In fact, it has been a pleasure to see so many programmes and competitions being held across the country during the last year or so. Furthermore, during this time Burundi's first-ever hard court was constructed at Entente Sportif de Bujumbura, which is another great achievement. As the Development Officer for the region, there has been a real emphasis on supporting Federation de Tennis du Burundi in terms of performance as it is a nation which is producing some talented players. TANZANIA Tanzania is big in terms of geographical status but a small nation in terms of the size of its development programme, although they have had players like Emmanuel Mallya enrol at ITF training centres in Burundi and Nairobi. Emmanuel is currently at the New Mexico Military Institute on a full scholarship, while Omary Sulle, another talented player from Tanzania, was at the Casablanca training centre for two years from 2014. The Tanzania Tennis Association is also running a very successful JTI, which is most prominent in Dar es Salaam, Arusha and Moshi. In Arusha, four primary schools are involved: Kilimani, Naurei, Sanawari and Sekei, while in Moshi there are three: Rafiki, ISM and the International School of Hope. The motivation of coaches to get involved in schools' programmes has increased dramatically and the number of players participating has more than That said, 20-year-old Sada Nahimana, who in April won the second ITF World Tennis Tour singles title of her career at W15 Antalya, is the only female player from Burundi holding a WTA ranking at the present time – she currently stands at No. 416 in the world. Sada, who benefitted from ITF International Junior Player Grants in 2018 and 2019, fine-tuned her talent during a six-year stay at the ITF/CAT African Development Centre in Casablanca. Meanwhile, earlier this year, she joined the Mouratoglou Tennis Academy in Nice. All in Burundi are very excited about Sada's potential, while there is also the hope that some of the nation's other promising youngsters will make their mark in the professional ranks in the coming years. Indeed, Guy Orly Iradukunda won his first professional title at M15 Monastir in June, while the ITF has recently recruited another talented player from Burundi, Allan Gatoto, and have offered him a scholarship to join the ITF/CAT African Development Centre in Casablanca. He is currently waiting for his visa to be granted. Good luck, Allan. " doubled in recent years, from 607 in 2017 to 1241 in 2021. There remains a significant focus upon improving the national association's administrative structure and we have secured Olympic Solidarity funding to help with this. The main objective is for the national association to establish a national development structure by implementing a medium to long-term action plan for tennis in Tanzania. Integral to this is the training of coaches and a talent identification programme being put in place. There is also likely to be some assistance through the ITF Digitalisation Grant programme, which is designed to help ITF member nations introduce digital resources to improve business operations. Under president Dennis Makoi, I am pleased to say there is a real drive to develop their administration, while at the same time vastly improve their engagement, which remains on the low side compared to other nations in East Africa. " UGANDA Having had its status as an ITF member nation suspended for the best part of a decade, the Uganda Tennis Association has been very active in terms of tennis development since its reinstatement in 2017. Key to this has been the JTI, with steady progress in terms of outreach and participation witnessed until the outbreak of Covid-19 in 2020, at which stage all activities were halted. Until then, there had been a significant increase in the number of schoolchildren participating in the JTI in primary schools following the spread of the programme to cities such as Soroti, Arua, Mbarara and Jinja. In total, there is a database of more than 500 players in the under-10, under-12, under-14 and under-16 age categories, while a strong belief exists that this number can be expanded considerably. In my view, Uganda is a nation to look out for. There is also a huge amount of support for grassroots activity in Uganda and the national association signed a contract with one of their partners, Red Rhino, who now sponsor all junior events across the country. While last year was difficult due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Uganda hosted five ITF World Tennis Tour competitions in 2018 and 2019 and has submitted bids to host Davis Cup events – the last time they did so was 2005. In 2019, meanwhile, Uganda staged the 12-and-under team championships and we are actively working on them hosting more regional events. In the same year, Uganda held a Play Tennis course in Kampala with 20 coaches, who are all involved in the national association's development programme, participating. There was also good number of female coaches which is a big step forward in terms of promoting women's participation in junior development programmes in Uganda. " " " "

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