One of the tennis players from Cross river state has appealed to the Nigeria Tennis Federation (NTF) to come to their aid as the racquet game is nearing extinction in the south southern state.
In a chat with Nigeria Tennis Live, the player pleaded with the tennis federation to bring tennis competitions to the state because tennis players there are being deprived of tournaments of any sort.
The player, identified as Malisco, noted that there are good tennis players in Calabar, the Cross River State capital, but they’re limited in terms of tournaments because there is no form of tennis development going on in the state.
“I used to play at the Police Officers’ Mess.
“Calabar Sports Club has tennis players but they don’t allow non members in, and this may be quite understandable.
“But we are appealing to the tennis federation to come to our aid in Cross River State because we don’t have any sponsor for tournaments and we don’t even have any no matter how small,” he enthused.
Another tennis player in the state who spoke on the condition of anonymity, noted that nothing ‘tennis’ is presently working in the state.
He noted that since the disbandment of sports associations in the state, nothing has returned to normalcy.
According to him: “The only competition we participate in is the Sports Festival. Apart from that, nothing else.
“The National Youth Games is there, we don’t play it, we don’t have any competition here at all. None at all.
“We are appealing to the tennis federation to help us with tournaments here because we have some players who are good enough.”