Nigeria’s Whitney Orimoloye is a very popular junior tennis player in Ghana. This is mostly because of her tennis talent on the court and her demeanor off it.
The youngster who has been within the radar of tennis experts, coaches and even administrators for some time now, is fast becoming one of the most talked about junior talents out of Africa.
Born to Nigerian parents in Ghana, the 10-year-old girl started playing major tournaments in 2023, but she had already been introduced to tennis since she was a one-year-old.
Her dad, Abiodun Orimoloye, who is already extremely proud of his first daughter, tells Nigeria Tennis Live that he was always putting her in front of the television to watch tennis players since she was one.
“I introduced her to tennis, we watched together and when I talk to her during our workouts, I knew she had an understanding of tennis already at a tender age.
“She started going to the courts at about one and a half years, and that was when the interest continued to grow,” he said during a brief chat in Ghana.
Orimoloye has already participated in major junior tournaments in Nigeria and Ghana having played at the Sapetro Junior Tennis Tournament in Lagos, the Alhaji Isa Adewale tournament and reached the semis of the MP Tiger Junior Tennis Championship, also in Lagos.
In Ghana, however, she has played and won both the Ghana Tennis Championship and the Sydney Katz Junior Tennis Championship.
She reached the final of the Whitray Junior Tennis Open which had almost 150 participants and lost out in the quarterfinals of the GT Oddor Tennis Championship which was also played in Ghana.
Recently, the youngster traveled to the Rafa Nadal Tennis Academy in Spain where she trained for three days before playing the Tenpro Junior Tournament where she lost in the first round.
Since her return from Spain, the 10-year-old has now set her sights on greater and bigger things in the nearest future.
In a yet-to-be-released interview with Nigeria Tennis Live, Orimoloye said she wants to win WTA events and several Grand Slam titles.
She also shared her experience at the Rafa Nadal Academy, where she said there were mostly white kids and not so many black ones like her.
“In Spain, I met a lot of players they were mostly white. I cannot really explain how I felt seeing them, but I had a lot of fun playing with them because they’re really good players.
“I like tennis because it’s a very good sport. I like to win a lot of things so, I started playing tennis. My aim in tennis is to win WTA events and a lot of Grand Slams,” the youngster noted.
Nigeria Tennis Live gathered that Orimoloye is billed to play a tournament in Morocco in December, the Tenpro championship in Switzerland around July/August, Little Mo in the US, as well as the Whitray tournament in April.
Mr. Orimoloye explained that he does not mind investing heavily in his daughter’s tennis at the moment, adding that he is not concerned about whether she wins or not, as he is mostly interested in her development in the sport.
He said: “At their stage now, it’s not about winning. There are some matches that even if they lose, you’ll still be proud because of the performance.
“Some of the games she played in Nigeria, she was commended as being a raw talent. But I believe her only challenge is that she gets nervous during tournaments.
“We just want to work on her mistakes during matches. Because she’s a different person from when she’s training”.
Nigeria Tennis Live will keep tabs on the youngster and monitor her progress on the tennis circuit as she develops her game in the coming years.
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