One more week of ITF Futures is likely to be added to the five that Nigerian players are exposed to in the country, Nigerian Tennis Live can exclusively report.
The Tombim, DAYAK and GSL Championships alongside the Governor’s Cup ITF Futures represented five weeks of pro-circuits in the country for players who could not travel abroad to play on the circuit.
But the President of the Nigeria Tennis Federation (NTF), Engr. Dayo Akindoju, has informed that there are plans to add another week of Futures tournament for Nigerian players within the country come 2018.
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In an exclusive chat with our correspondent on Monday morning, Engr. Akindoju noted that plans are in progress to get one more sponsor for an additional ITF Futures in Abuja, so that there can be four weeks in the country’s Federal Capital and two weeks in Lagos.
“It will surely happen by the grace of God, because we are seriously working on it.
“Thing is, we will not now have four weeks at a stretch because it may disrupt everybody’s activities and schedules with work, so we will have to break it into two; two weeks at first and two weeks months later.
“I believe our players will be better for it if we can have six weeks of ITF Futures within the country and they can also play other pro-circuits within the continent,” he explained.
The NTF President also confirmed that his post as the head of the federation will not stop him from continuing with the sponsorship of the DAYAK Open.
He said: “Sure, it will happen in 2018, that is not even an issue. We are only looking forward to making it much bigger than what we presently have; that’s all.”