Nigerian tennis players and enthusiasts, by now, are getting acquainted with a young girl from Jos by the name Suwa Nenrot.
The youngster, alongside her coach, Joseph Oke quietly found their ways to the tennis section of the National Stadium, Abuja, in a quest to reach the main draw of a major senior national tournament for the first time.
Their goal, Nigeria Tennis Live gathered, was just for her to participate, and put to action what she had been rigorously practicing with her coach for the past two years, and boy did she deliver?
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Not only did she put the things she learnt to good practice, she was totally unplayable in her matches from the qualifying rounds to the main draw, before losing to Etoro Bassey, another emerging force in Nigerian tennis.
Tennis fans and spectators who watched her game could not take their eyes off her, as they kept asking: “Who is this girl? She is a fighter!”, “This girl will be a problem in Nigerian tennis”, “wow! she’s so consistent on the court”, among several other comments.
Raised by a single mum who works as a civil servant in Plateau State, Nenrot, of the Njas tribe, reportedly picked interest in tennis alongside her twin brother, at an early stage as she was a regular visitor at the Plateau Club which is close to her house.
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However, things did not go smoothly for her in her quest to become a tennis sensation as she had her personal struggles despite being very young.
Her coach, Joseph, told Nigeria Tennis Live that: “Her passion for the game started floating into oceans of oblivion. However, I picked interest in her and went to her mum, begging & promising to turn things around within two years.
“I signed her into the Red Crown Tennis Team and started rigorous work. We started 20 hours training weekly. She would always come early and push through even when I am too tough; always willing to learn and listen”.
And the result of that consistent two-year training is a semifinal berth at the first time of asking, showing tennis followers in Nigeria what stuff she is made of.
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Coach Joe still believes there is a lot more to be done with the 16-year-old girl who recently completed her secondary school education.
According to him: “It has been great working with her. We are not there yet but we are moving gradually, with God on our side, we will get somewhere great.
“The plan is to work more with her and feature her in more local and international tournaments to earn points which could help in the processing of Scholarship for College Tennis in the USA”.
While it may be too early to state how far Nenrot will go, the signs are clear already that she is one of the players that will play tennis for very long time.
Nigeria Tennis Live will keep up with the player’s development and progress as the months and years go by.