None of the winners at the recently concluded Dala Hard Court Tennis Championship in Kano was the top ranked player in Nigeria prior to the event.
Henry Atseye rolled back the years to cop his first ever Dala Hard Court win despite dominating tennis in Nigeria for a lengthy period.
Prior to the event, the Abuja-based Nigerian tennis legend was the number three-ranked player in the country only bested by Uche Oparaoji and David Ekpenyong, the 2nd and 1st ranked players respectively.
But after winning the competition, believed to pay the highest prize money in the country, Atseye will cop a lot of points and is expected to rise from his current 415 points he had prior to the competition.
However, it is yet to be seen if the number of points he’ll be getting for winning the tournament will bring him at par with the second-placed player let alone the number one player.
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On the other hand, Khadijat Mohammed, another first-time winner at the competition and any senior competition in the country, was ranked 14th prior to the event.
She surprised a lot of bookmakers by emerging as the winner of the weeklong event despite entering the competition with a Wild Card.
Her win represents a new phase for youngsters who are expected to take charge of tennis in the country in the coming years.
Mohammed had 100 points prior to the commencement of the competition, to place her 14th nationwide. But where will this win take the Nigerian teenager?
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As at the time of filing this report, Nigeria Tennis Live could not ascertain what the new rankings were as the new list was not available.
However, while Atseye may yet stroll past Oparaoji, aka lefty, to become Nigeria’s number two player, it is near impossible for him to reach number one already.
On the flip side, Nigerians will be curious about where the teenage sensation who won the Women’s Singles will eventually move to when the new rankings are released.
Nigeria Tennis Live will keep all our readers posted on the new details once the rankings are made available to our correspondent.