A tennis league for Nigerian tennis players will be making an entrance into the sports circle this year, Naija Tennis Special can authoritatively report.
This will ensure that the players- who have always clamoured for tournaments- will be kept busy for most parts of the year, if not throughout.
Informing our correspondent of this latest development is Mr. Godwin Kienka, Director of the International Tennis Academy, ITA, who spoke via a telephone conversation that the tennis league had been approved by the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC.
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| Nigeria’s number one male tennis player, Clifford Enosoregbe, is one of the players expected to participate in the newly-introduced tennis league |
The former journalist with the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, explained that the project had been in the pipeline but he had to wait for the appropriate time to ‘burst the bubble’ and open the lid on what they had been cooking.
The tournament, this tennis blog gathered, will be called the NCC Tennis Cup but shall be owned and managed by the ITA, which Kienka coordinates.
According to the one time Umpire with the International Tennis Federation, ITF, “the NCC has finally approved the Tennis League and we shall hold a press briefing to intimate the general public on the way the tournament will go.
“It had been in the pipeline for quite sometime now but we had to keep mute because the company had not totally sanctioned the final part of the deal. But we have it now and in the next few days, we shall all be given the details of the league.
“It will definitely keep our players busy and also help develop and stabilize our tennis. I am really glad that all of these are coming to reality now.”
Additional information obtained from
the NCC website, www.ncc.gov.ng, revealed that foreign players are also eligible to participate in the championship.
It noted as well that, “Nigerian players at all levels are eligible to participate. However, once a player has PLAYED a match for a team, he is not eligible to play for any other team throughout the duration of the competition for the particular year.”
“The date for the commencement of the tournament and other modalties shall be made public during the press briefing,” Mr. Kienka added.