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| Nigeria’s Michael Moses, who recently won the Governor’s Cup Lagos Tennis Championship, is one of the players expected to do battle during the one week event in Abuja |
Naija Tennis Special can reliably inform that the proposed National Ports Authority, NPA National Open Chanpionship slated for Monday, 24 November will now serve off on Friday, 28 November.
According to the Mrs. Gloria Ekwempu, Secretary General of the Nigeria Tennis Federation, NTF, the postponement was necessitated since some modalties are still been put in place for the successful hosting of the tourney.
She told our correspondent that, “the tournament has been shifted to Friday for arrival while the main draw is likely to start on Monday, 1 December and end on Saturday, 6 December.
“We regret the inconvenience this change may have caused those who had been preparing for the tournament.”
The NTF Scribe also gave the new date for the Dala Hard Court Tourney in Kano which was originally scheduled to start from Thursday, 4 December, 2014.
According to her, “the Kano tournament will now start on 9 December due to the new arrangement on ground. The players will move straight from Abuja to Kano as we continue our run of tournaments as the year ends.”
Meanwhile, President of the NTF, Engr. Sani Ndanusa, has disclosed that the players who were initially stranded in Abuja following the postponement of the NPA tournament have been taken care of.
The players had on Sunday morning lamented the fact that they were not informed of the change of date by the Federation and had nobody to receive them.
But in a chat with P.M. News Tennis Special from Abuja, the former Nigeria Olympic Committee, NOC President informed that the players were being accommodated and fed ahead of the official opening of the tourney now slated for Friday.
“Since the players were not aware that tournament had been postponed before they got here, it is our duty to take care of them and make them comfortable before the official commencement of the tourney.
“They have been fed and accommodated and we hope to continue with that until the tournament commences officially. We are not happy that they were not properly informed, so we apologise,” he explained.