Dakar 2026 tennis engagement event fuels Senegal participation drive
More children in Senegal will get to experience tennis for the first time thanks to a participation drive that is being kickstarted by the Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games.
The Youth Olympic Games got underway in the Senegalese capital on 31 October, and tennis is one of 10 engagement sports available to discover in the city throughout the 14 days of the event. More than 4,000 girls and boys – 300 a day – are expected to pick up a racket and get involved.
Some of these children were joined on court for a hit earlier this week by IOC President Kirsty Coventry and World Tennis President David Haggerty as they lent their support to what could be an important moment in the expansion of tennis in the country.
While tennis isn’t part of the competition programme in Dakar, this is a golden opportunity of a different kind for the sport in Senegal.
Tennis has a low take-up in the West African nation – just 1,500 people were recorded as playing two years ago in the 2024 World Tennis Global Tennis Report.
Being a Youth Olympic Games engagement sport provides a valuable platform for tennis in Senegal to connect with young people, one that could lead to further participation and involvement with the sport. It’s also a great moment to promote tennis more widely in the country.
The Fédération Senegalaise de Tennis (FST), under its President Layti Ndiaye, has been working with World Tennis and the IOC through its development arm Olympic Solidarity to maximise this opportunity.
The engagement event is taking place at Dakar's Place du Souvenir
In 2025 the FST rejoined the Junior Tennis Initiative (JTI), the World Tennis programme which introduces kids aged 14 and under to the sport. Building on the momentum of Dakar 2026, the FST will be delivering a JTI participation course in schools in 2027 for the same children who took part in the engagement programme, and there are plans to introduce an inter-school competition using the Tie Break Tens format.
World Tennis has supplied tennis equipment for the engagement event, and will provide more equipment for the schools programme in 2027.
In the longer term, the goal is to expand the JTI to new venues in Dakar, and ultimately to other cities in Senegal so that more children can experience tennis.
Ahead of Dakar 2026, a talent id programme supported by Olympic Solidarity funding took place across Senegal and three other nations (Togo, Kenya and South Africa). This started in 2023 and has led to structured training, coaching development and competition for 10 promising youngsters, while the progress of a wider group of 30 players is being tracked.
The goal is to build sustainable pathways from grassroots to international performance in these nations, so that future stars have a route to the higher levels of tennis. At the same time, Senegal has established a national training centre in Dakar, has fielded a 12-and-under team in regional junior competition, and in 2025 hosted four events on the World Tennis Tour Juniors in 2025.
Senegal Davis Cup player Yannick Languina talks to World Tennis President David Haggerty
There are 41 Athlete Role Models across the Games, and for tennis this role is fulfilled by
Yannick Languina, a player who has represented Senegal in five Davis Cup ties, most recently in February in a World Group II Play-off tie against Pakistan (they lost, but reaching this stage was an important milestone for the nation).
"Having Tennis as Engagement sport is a great opportunity for us to reach as many participants as possible and to attract more people to tennis," said Ndiaye. "During the Youth Olympic Games, we are working to grow our database of players who have come to our camps, so that we can later guide them toward tennis clubs across Senegal.
"We look forward to seeing many more people playing tennis after these Games."
Kirsty Coventry said, "These activities give them (children) the opportunity to discover new sports, try something different, challenge themselves and experience the joy of being active together. They also show how sport can bring people together, create connections and inspire in ways that extend far beyond the field of play. Congratulations to all the International Federations for their commitment and for helping to bring these memorable experiences to life."