Professional golfer Said Mawa and amateur Ronney Bukenya, will be the surprise pick when the draws for the third Castle Lite Uganda Tennis Open are made today in the afternoon at Kampala Club.
“I have received entries for the two players and they will start off with a qualifier,” John Oduke, the tournament director said. “Those are the only players from Jinja that have confirmed they might be others who will enter late.”
Mawa, was a national tennis player who featured for Uganda’s junior team together with Bukenya and switched to golf due to lack of tennis competition. Both Jinja golfers have had a relatively great success in the sports of golf.
The draws will see top seed David Oringa, the defending champion starting his quest for back to back tournaments starting on Monday when the main draw gets into action.
Seed two Duncan Mugabe, will also start his games on Monday as he seeks to reclaim the Open that he last won in 2011.
The biggest event on the Uganda Lawn Tennis Association calendar has attracted players from Rwanda, Zimbabwe and Uganda. Rwanda has entered Jean Claude Gasigwa,Mubarak Harerimana,Eric Ntawuhigana,Damasceni Munyaneza.
The winner of this year’s event that is Men’s singles will walk away with 2.5 million while the Ladies singles will walk away with 2 million.
Castle Lite has sunk a total of 40 million into the tournament that will for the first time have a veterans tournament included. This year’s event also has Housing Finance Bank is a new sponsor of the the tournament.