KIGALI, March 5, 2025
Tennis is increasingly looking for new markets, and Africa is becoming a key focus. The Rwanda Challenger in Kigali is now being held for the second time, marking an important step for professional tennis in Central Africa. One of the driving forces behind this project is Arzel Mevellec, an experienced tournament director from France.
In this interview, Mevellec discusses the challenges and opportunities of organizing professional tournaments on the African continent. He explains why Rwanda plays a special role, shares his vision for an “African Swing” in tennis, and talks about his efforts to build sustainable structures in collaboration with local partners.
Tennis TourTalk: We are in Kigali for the second year of the Rwanda Challenger. How is it going this week?
Arzel Mevellec: Well, I still need to adapt to the conditions, to the new environment. We learn every time we come here. We have made huge improvements, as last year we had to build everything in only six weeks. This time we had a couple of months more to prepare for the tournament. I am really happy about it. The players seem to be happy with the situation here as well, so everything’s quite comfortable. We are successful.
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How did you come up with the idea of organizing Challenger events in Central Africa?
I have my tournament in Quimper, a city situated on the west coast of France in Brittany. One of my best friends went to Roland Garros and met a businessman from Rwanda. He asked, if he knew someone, who would be crazy enough to come to Kigali and think about organizing a professional tennis tournament. I directly called the ATP, and the director called me back after two minutes just to say, “if you go there, we will provide you with all the prize money and you will not pay a fee to organize a tournament”. The ATP has spent more than $500,000 in the last two years. Africa is a great subject of development for tennis. Since 1990 there haven’t been any tournaments in the eastern part of Africa, meaning the sub-Saharan region, as North African countries like Tunisia and Morocco are well connected to Europe. They have a couple of tournaments and many players. The difference is that you are able to organize tournaments in France totally disconnected from the clubs. In Africa you need to be connected to the local clubs.
What are the main challenges of organizing a professional tournament here?
I think it’s just a matter of culture. We want to organize something like we did in Quimper, where the tournament has grown over the past years. We also want to support the locals, but we need to respect all the standards and ATP rules. Sometimes we struggle with details, for example food. For the locals it’s often not that important but we need to provide special things for the players. Sometimes it’s difficult to obtain what we want. We need to wait too long. Everyday I go to the players restaurant and explain that the pasta is overcooked. That’s something quite easy to obtain in Europe but they have to learn, and they want to learn. That’s very important. The players have to cope with the high altitude at about 1,500 meters. So, it’s different for them. And finally, for me as well, when I arrive at Kigali at 30 degrees Celsius after I left in Quimper at minus 1 degree (laughs).
In Europe a couple of Challenger events struggle financially due to a lack of sponsors. How does the sponsoring work here?
Yes, it’s difficult to find public sponsors in Europe. We are lucky to have a powerful federation in France but in Quimper we also keep struggling to maintain a high level of budget. Here we have the support of the Ministry of Sports. They bear more than half of the budget of the tournaments, which is a lot. They want to promote the event and want to achieve a visibility of the country all over the world. “Visit Rwanda” might be the best example. In the future, we want to create a cooperation with both Quimper and Kigali. For “Visit Rwanda” it is more interesting to be visible in Quimper. And on the other hand, why not put some pictures of Brittany in Kigali. There is also the idea of creating packages. Tennis enthusiasts could combine attending a tennis event in a different environment with travelling around the country, going on a safari for example.
You also run tournaments in Brazzaville and next in the Ivory Coast. What are differences between the Republic of Congo and Rwanda?
Conditions for players a very different. In Brazzaville it is very hot with a lot of humidity. It is a wonderful destination. The organizers are very motivated but it’s expensive to travel there. Flith ticket prices are very high. There are good academies to welcome the players. The Federation is well involved in the tournament. Nonetheless, Rwanda is a special place. The country’s history is a symbol in Africa. I am French and I know what my country did in the past, which I am not proud of. Of course, I am not responsible for that, but I can be responsible in creating something new here. The Ivory Coast is something special, too, because it is well connected to France. I went there only one day but it feels more like my country. Here in Rwanda, I discovered something totally different from France. It’s good for my mind to be here. Of course, I need to earn some money. That’s my business. But it’s not all about this. I use the support from the ATP for my income, which means that I spent money in all of the countries but never received money from them. I use the money from the ATP to compensate for the costs. I have a local partner, and I hope that he will become the tournament director within the next few years. I hope to come and just see the improvements that they are able to develop the tournament by themselves. In the past the French were good in giving advice to people all over the world. I am not like this. I just want to share my experience with local people because there are many with a lot of talent here.
So, we can count on an African swing in the next couple of years?
I hope so. That’s the goal. I want to create a tournament swing on the East African clay, like six weeks in a row with Ethiopia, Tanzania, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda after the Australian Open, using clubs with a good infrastructure. Some ITF tournaments do already take place there. On the western coast, we would like to have some hard-court events. I hope that in the future Brazzaville will take place on hard courts as well. It would be great to establish tournaments in Gabon, Togo, Ivory Coast and Senegal for example on hard courts during the clay-court season in Europe. That’s the idea.
Thank you very much and all the best.
Interview: Florian Heer
