NTF Gives Update On Lagos Open, Eyes Junior ITF Event As Tennis Resumes Fully

Engr. Ifedayo Akindoju, the President of the Nigeria Tennis Federation (NTF), has revealed that the federation is working on a junior ITF event before the end of the year.

In a video recording sent to Nigeria Tennis Live on Sunday night, the NTF President noted that the sports ministry has approved the return of tennis as one of the non-contact sports.

But Mr. Akindoju expressed doubts over the possibility of having the Lagos Open and other ITF Futures before the end of the year, due to the effects of the pandemic and logistics challenges.

He noted, however, that the NTF is planning to have a J5 or J4 event before the end of the year, a plan which is yet to be approved by the ITF.

Below is the full transcript of the video recording sent to our correspondent:

Goodevening, everyone. My name is Ifedayo Akindoju, President of the Nigeria Tennis Federation.

We are excited that tennis, which is one of the non-contact sports that have been approved to start off, will start from tomorrow, very fully.

I know some clubs have started playing already. We are excited. I am personally very excited that after four months, (in fact) the whole of this year, we have not done much. But hopefully, we’ll be able to do whatever we can do between now and the end of the year.

Then, next year, hopefully, we’ll be better.

We have a couple of tournaments that should happen this year. We are not sure of the Futures which should hold this year, the 25k Futures, which would hold normally, we are not sure if we are going to hold the three weeks. I’m not sure of Lagos Open because of the time.

And you know, the tournaments that are going to be approved by the ITF, are very limited because, you know, one half of the year is already gone. I’m not sure we are going to have any 25k Futures this year.

But we are going to be approaching ITF to see if we can have like two-three weeks of J5 or J4 for Junior under -18.