Any hope of a podium place finish for a Nigerian player at the first leg of the Governor’s Cup Lagos Tennis Championship, was shattered when the last man standing, Christian Paul, beaten silly by India’s Aryan Goveas in two straight sets of 6-0, 6-0.
Paul, a winner of gold medal in tennis at the National Sports Festival, had qualified for the second round of the ITF pro-circuit after emerging as a lucky loser to replace the number four seed who became unavailable at the last minute
He defeated youngster, Christopher Itodo 6-1, 6-0 and zoomed into the second round, but he did not stay there for too long before being sent packing from the last 16 of the $25,000 +H tournament serving west and central Africa.
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| Christian Paul lost his match and crashed out of the Governor’s Cup as the only Nigerian remaining. |
Thus, the Nigerians’ about 12 of them in the Main Draws, ended their fairytale run without getting further up the ladder, to replicate their 2016 performance at the ITF-rated tournament.
This has raised many talking points and thrown open many questions; is there really hope for a Nigerian player playing an ITF Futures in his own country?
From reports and conversations with the players, they believe that the tournament is being held just for the foreigners as they are yet to really benefit from it, but the administrators have repeated time and time again, that things have to be properly done before results start coming forth.
While it may be too late to prepare to ‘go far’ in the Futures 5, Nigerian players must start thinking of how to get better than they have in previous tournaments, and prove that they are really no push overs.