Minister of Youth and Sports, Solomon Dalung will serve-off the opening Tie of the 2016 NCC Tennis League on Saturday, September 10 at the Abuja National Stadium Tennis Centre.
The ceremony which is scheduled for 10 am prompt will precede the seven-match cracker between defending champions Team Tombim and debutants Team Offikwu from Kaduna.
The highpoint of the Tie will be the match between Nigerian No.1 Michael Moses and Sylvester Emmanuel ranked No.2. Both players are tied on points on the Nigeria Tennis Federation (NTF) ranking and would look to use this encounter to lay claim to being the best in the country.
Emmanuel holds the Dala Hard Court men’s singles title while Moses won the CBN Senior Championship.
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| Team Tombim will be hoping to defend their League title again this year. |
The ladies singles match is also expected to be very competitive as Anu Aiyegbusi No.3, now representing Team Offikwu, will have to defend her ranking position against Sarah Adegoke who has dropped to No.4 in the latest NTF rankings.
The second men’s singles is expected the feature, Sunday Emmanuel, the USA based former national champion who returned to Nigeria to take part in the league. If he finds the form that made him No.1 in the recent past, Christian Paul and Moses will have their hands full this weekend.
The NCC Tennis League is offering an increased prize money of N7 million to the winners, N5 million to the runners-up, N3 million to the third place and N2 million to the fourth position. The League is also taking top quality tennis to all parts of the country.
The Tie will end on Sunday with the reverse singles for men and the ladies singles and mixed doubles starting from 10 am.