Is It Too Early To Start Preparations For The 2023 All Africa Games?

There are exactly 56 days to the commencement of the 2023 All Africa Games scheduled to hold across three cities in Ghana.

Nigeria, like 52 other countries, will be competing in different sporting activities, one of which is tennis, and everybody will be aspiring to get better than their previous outing at the Games.

During the 2019 event in Rabat, Morocco, the Nigerian tennis contingent returned to the country with two bronze medals, which many tennis observers believed was worse than what we deserved.

It has been over four years since the last African Games and after Team Nigeria’s amazing runs in the Davis Cup and Billie Jean King competitions in Kenya and Rwanda, expectations will be high for a a better placing at the 2023 edition of the Games.

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But the question begging for answers on the lips of many Nigerian tennis followers at this point is “when will we start preparing for the African Games?”

For starters, Nigerian players within the country have not played a national tournament since the end of November, 2023, when Kano hosted the Dala Hard Court championship.

The much anticipated ASF Open was rescheduled over certain disagreements, a situation which the players found really embarrassing and disrespectful as they had already made plans.

According to the preliminary plans of the Nigeria Tennis Federation (NTF) obtained by Nigeria Tennis Live, there are no chances that there will be a national tournament before the commencement of the Games, to give the players that competitive fitness they need.

Therefore, there are worries by Nigerians that participating in the tennis event at the All Africa Games may not be as rewarding in terms of medals haul.

When contacted, the General Secretary of the NTF, Makpa Aliyu, told Nigeria Tennis Live that preparations will soon commence on the part of the federation.

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Even though he noted that the African Games is purely under the purview of the Ministry of Sports, he stated that the federation was putting necessary arrangements in place.

“From our part yes, we are preparing, but you know the African Games is a programme of the Federal Ministry of Sports.

“However, on our part as a federation, we are putting the necessary arrangements while waiting for the ministry.

“Surely, we will resume camp soon,” he said.

How soon will the NTF open camp for the tennis players to get them back to championship-level fitness is another question begging for response at the moment.

But Nigerians will be hoping to hear the news about the players who will be in camp ahead of the tennis events at the All Africa Games, as soon as possible.