{"id":54951,"date":"2025-07-20T10:33:15","date_gmt":"2025-07-20T10:33:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/davis-cup-2025-rwanda-tennis-team-to-battle-it-out-with-14-nations-in-gaborone\/"},"modified":"2025-07-20T09:34:25","modified_gmt":"2025-07-20T09:34:25","slug":"davis-cup-2025-rwanda-tennis-team-to-battle-it-out-with-14-nations-in-gaborone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/davis-cup-2025-rwanda-tennis-team-to-battle-it-out-with-14-nations-in-gaborone\/","title":{"rendered":"Davis Cup 2025: Rwanda tennis team to battle it out with 14 nations in Gaborone"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The tournament will bring together 15 nations competing in Africa\u2019s Davis Cup Group V, the continent\u2019s lowest tier in the prestigious global competition.<\/p>\n<p>Team Rwanda features a strong line-up including Niyigena \u00c9tienne, Hakizumwami Junior, Ishimwe Claude, and David Manzi Rwamucyo. The squad is under the stewardship of head coach Habiyambere Dieudonn\u00e9.<\/p>\n<p>Before they departed from Kigali on Saturday, the players received the national flag from the Minister of State in the Ministry of Sports, Rwego Ngarambe, in a symbolic send-off ceremony.<\/p>\n<p>The matches will be staged at the National Tennis Centre in Gaborone, with the 15 teams divided into three pools: one group of three teams, and two groups with four teams each.<\/p>\n<p>This year\u2019s participants include: Botswana, Cameroon, Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania, Madagascar, Lesotho, Ethiopia, Libya, Mauritania, Mozambique, Seychelles, Sudan, Congo Brazzaville, and Djibouti.<\/p>\n<p>To determine which two teams will earn promotion to Group IV, playoffs will be held between the top team in Group A and the top team in Group D, as well as between the winners of Group B and Group C.<\/p>\n<p>Rwanda dropped to Group V following a tough outing at the Davis Cup 2024 in Angola, where it finished bottom of Group B behind Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Kenya.<\/p>\n<p>That 2024 squad, also coached by Habiyambere Dieudonn\u00e9, included Habiyambere Ernest, Niyigena \u00c9tienne, Hakizumwami Junior, and Muhire Joshua. The team won only one of nine matches in the group stage and lost 2\u20131 to Angola in the relegation playoff.<\/p>\n<p>Cameroon also suffered relegation from Group IV in 2024, finishing last in Group A, home to Senegal, Algeria, and Angola, before falling 2\u20131 to Kenya in the playoffs.<\/p>\n<p>Rwanda\u2019s best Davis Cup campaign came in 2019, when the national team, featuring Havugimana Olivier, Niyigena \u00c9tienne, Habiyambere Ernest, Uwizeyimana Mathieu, and guided by coach Rutikanga Sylvain, secured historic promotion to Group III.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"spip-document spip-document-91226 aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/jpg\/gwrgdxywkaejcmy-b7587.jpg\" alt=\"The Minister of State in the Ministry of Sports, Rwego Ngarambe, hands over the national flag to the coach of the Rwanda men\u2019s national tennis team, Habiyambere Dieudonn\u00e9.    \" \/><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"spip-document spip-document-91227 aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/jpg\/gwrgcqiweaacrx5-dfccf.jpg\" alt=\"The men\u2019s national team is competing in the Davis Cup as one of 15 countries in Group V.    \" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rwanda\u2019s men\u2019s national tennis team has landed in Gaborone, Botswana, ahead of the Davis Cup 2025, slated for July 21\u201325.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":131,"featured_media":2000091228,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[75],"byline":[170],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-54951","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-homenews","byline-igihe"],"bylines":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"contributors":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"featured_image":{"id":2000091228,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/mixcollage-20-jul-2025-09-33-am-7845.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/mixcollage-20-jul-2025-09-33-am-7845.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/mixcollage-20-jul-2025-09-33-am-7845.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/mixcollage-20-jul-2025-09-33-am-7845.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/mixcollage-20-jul-2025-09-33-am-7845.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/mixcollage-20-jul-2025-09-33-am-7845.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54951","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/131"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54951"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54951\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000091228"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54951"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=54951"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=54951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}