Uganda’s Small Tennis Community Is Rallying To Make The Game More Popular

Uganda’s tennis scene has always been exclusive to the wealthy and even post-independence, it remained a sport for the elite. But a small but thriving community of tennis enthusiasts is emerging in Kampala who are hoping to increase the popularity of tennis and ignite a passion for it among Uganda’s people.

Tennis has always been an expensive sport, and one of the reasons for its exclusivity is the high cost of equipment, such as a well-maintained court, balls and rackets. This, along with its colonial history, is a major reason for the sport’s limited following. However, with the advent of more affordable and durable equipment, the tennis community is slowly but surely growing.

The sport, although predominantly a middle-class pursuit, is no longer reserved for only the elite. Nonetheless, public courts remain sparse, and there is limited media or public attention. A group of dedicated players is trying to change this by running sports camps for children and encouraging their participation as much as possible.

They are trading secondhand equipment and maintaining the courts to the best of their ability with locally made equipment. Uganda has more clay courts than hard courts due to the former being cheaper to construct, but clay courts require daily brushing, watering, pressing, and marking. Materials for this are often improvised, such as using lime or ash to draw the lines, string for demarcating the lines and a stone to hold the string down.

Tennis balls are one of the most expensive items in the sport, with a tin of three costing £9. Academies have difficulty sourcing enough balls for the growing number of players and often rely on donations and used balls from professional players. The community’s objective is to ignite a grassroots passion for the sport among Uganda’s people, and their commitment is already paying off.

The Kampala Summer Tennis Camp saw children from as far as Matuga, 32km from Kampala, attending for the chance to train in a sport that they are passionate about. Tennis has come a long way in Uganda since its colonial days, and the tennis community is playing a significant role in making it accessible to the masses. John Oduke, 64, is the national coach of the Ugandan tennis team and one of the few lucky enough to have learned the sport as a ball boy in the 1960s. Without the benefit of a coach, he rose to be one of the top players in the country, representing Uganda in the 1998 Davis Cup.

He is a testament to the growing passion for tennis in Uganda and is an inspiration to young players like eight-year-old Florence Nabulime, who has taken up the sport under the guidance of her father and tennis coach, Charles Ssenyange. Patricia Nakawunde, who also travels 32km from her village near Matuga, is another keen player. As a small but lively tennis community emerges in Uganda, it is a testament to the power of sport to unite people from all backgrounds and inspire them to dream big.