The 40th edition of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Senior Open Tennis Championship ended at the tennis section of the National Stadium, Abuja, on Saturday, 30 June, 2018 with all the players returning to their different bases after the tournament.
Sylvester Emmanuel and Sarah Adegoke won the men and women’s singles titles respectively with Abdulmumin Babalola, the losing singles finalist, partnering with Shehu Lawal to win the men’s team event while Christie Agugbom and her perennial partner, Blessing Samuel, won the women’s doubles.
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| Sylvester Emmanuel playing against legendary Abdulmumin Babalola at the CBN Open final in Abuja. He won in the final set. What’s next for him after the CBN? Photo: Ewaoche Ameh. |
Prior to the competition which is the first to be hosted by the tennis federation in the outgoing year, there had been fears over the possibility of this tournament being hosted, but the president of the federation kept assuring the players that it would hold. It did.
Now, the players – especially those who breathe and sleep tennis – will be wondering what the federation has in stock for them as the first competition of the year has come to a successful end in the nation’s federal capital.
Nigerian Tennis Live‘s guess is that the 10million Nigerian grand slam may be in the offing by the Nigeria Tennis Federation as plans seem to have been concluded for the successful hosting of the competition.
With the players expecting more from the federation and getting less in the first half of the year, the NTF may want to do them the good of getting them a busier July-December than they have ever had, especially prior to this administration.
Everybody is certainly keeping their fingers crossed presently, to see what new thing the federation will challenge the players and other tennis stakeholders in the country with in the coming months.