Some of Nigeria’s top junior tennis youngsters will treat spectators at the tennis section of the Ikoyi Club 1938 to some high class tennis action when the Zenith Bank Next Generation Masters serves off.
Nigeria Tennis Live reliably gathered that the youngsters who have already been invited by the International Tennis Academy (ITA), organizers of the five-day event, are among the best in the country at the moment.
The Director of the ITA, Godwin Kienka, via a press release, informed journalists that the competition promises to be mouthwatering with the caliber of youngsters invited to grace the event.
“We are set for the 2024 edition which serves off at the Ikoyi Club from Wednesday, August 7 with the grand finale on Sunday August 11. On the sidelines of the Zenith Next Gen will be the FE & P Invitational Masters for boys and girls 12s and 14s to help us identify the best talent in that age group and establish a transition process.
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“Some of the players invited include, Mubarak Ganiyu, Ikenna Okonkwo, Suleiman Ibrahim, Success Ogunjobi, Itoro Bassey and Logolay Holzendoff,” Kienka noted.
The former national tennis superstar also commended Michael Emmanuel who was the standout player for Nigeria at the recently held Davis Cup Africa Group III Qualifier in Abuja.
The teenager fondly called Akpan by his friends won all four Singles matches and was hugely instrumental in Nigeria’s promotion to the World Group II playoffs scheduled for February, 2025.
Kienka noted that Michael, who was one of the finalists in last year’s Zenith Bank Next Generation Masters which held at the Ikoyi Club got his chance when national champion David Ekpeyong was unavailable for selection and was tapped ahead of former national champion Winston Igbinovia by Davis Cup Captain Benson Ishicheli.
“The young lad justified the captain’s confidence in him by winning all his singles matches against top players from Namibia, Zimbabwe, Ivory Coast, Benin Republic and Ghana to get Nigeria her promotion to Group 2.
“Michael’s performance shows that our talent identification and selection process for the Zenith Bank Next Generation Masters is topnotch.
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“Not only Michael, Canice Abua, a finalist at the 2023 edition, was in the semifinals of the last two national tournaments while Khadijat Mohammed who won the Girls’ singles went on to win the Dala Hard Court Womens Singles four months later,” the former tennis official added.
The Zenith Bank Next Generation Masters is scheduled to start on Wednesday, 7 August while the finale is slated for Sunday, 11 August, 2024, inside the tennis section of the Ikoyi Club 1938, Lagos.
Nigeria Tennis Live will keep all our readers updated on the developments from the tournament which promises to be as exciting.