EXCLUSIVE: ASF Open Organizers Postpone Debut Tournament, Give Reasons

The organizers of the anticipated ASF Open Tennis Championships have revealed that the tournament has been postponed over technical glitches arising from the organization.

This update became necessary following earlier reports that the tennis federation had not approved the competition as at Wednesday, 22 November, 2023.

Makpa Aliyu, the Secretary of the Nigeria Tennis Federation (NTF), had informed that they could not reach a compromise with the organizers, which means the federation could not approve the event yet.

But in an exclusive chat with Nigeria Tennis Live, Dr. Daniel Okara, the ASF Open’s representative, noted that there were issues with the planning which they were not privy to early enough.

According to him, the plan was to have a charity competition as a private event which would have just helped the players compete and earn money.

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But they were advised that the ASF competition could also help the players gain national points, hence the reason it was extended to a national event for which certain criteria were listed by the Nigeria Tennis Federation (NTF).

“They actually told us that we had met with most part of the basic needs for the tournament to be held, but we were not aware of the fact that we needed to make the factsheet available to the players.

“This factsheet, we were told, should have been made available three weeks to the competition, but we’re already in the week of the event.

“Apart from this, though, we’ve met all the necessary requirements for the competition but we have been met with this brick wall,” Dr. Okara explained.

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On their next line of action, he noted that the ASF Open organizers are very much ready for the competition, as he also shared images of the trophies for the winners, but are now left with no other option than to postpone the event.

According to him: “Right now, we no options than to postpone the event because we want it to be a proper event which will meet all the requirements of the NTF.

“As it is now, we will hold the competition in January and meet up with all the requirements listed by the tennis federation.

“And for the players who have traveled to Abuja, they will get stipends to cushion their transport depending on where they have traveled to play the competition from.

“We will also see how to make it up to the player at the postponed date by trying to double the prize money.”