For the first time in about half a decade, Lagos State will be hosting an International Tennis Federation (ITF) tournament, Nigeria Tennis Live has gathered.
According to information made available to our correspondent, plans are in top gear to organize a three-week Grade four and five junior ITF event in the heart of Lagos.
Recall that Abuja, Nigeria’s federal capital, has been the hub of tennis for a while, hosting majority of the national tournaments as well as the junior ITF competitions.
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However, in a new development, there are plans in progress for Lagos to host three weeks of junior ITF competition at the prestigious Lagos Country Club.
What this implies is that Nigeria will be only country hosting a clay court junior ITF competition in the whole of West Africa.
One of the organizers told Nigeria Tennis Live that everything necessary to host the tournament is already in place, except the tournament being listed on the ITF website to show that it has been approved by the international tennis body.
“We have secured the venue, we already have the dates secured as well. We have done everything necessary to get the approval from the ITF as well. It’s just the federation that we’re waiting on for the final icing on the cake before it becomes public on the ITF website,” he explained.
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On why they decided to choose Lagos and not any other part of the country, he noted that Lagos has always been the home of tennis in Nigeria, especially with the Lagos Open in recent years, hosting some of the biggest tennis stars across the globe.
“Also, from our experience of attending other junior ITF events across Africa, many of the players would rather come to Lagos than go to Abuja.
“So, we thought, since there are some already in Abuja, we can as well have ours in Lagos so that we can have people come to Nigeria from different parts of the world for junior ITF tournaments,” he added.
Our correspondent gathered that the tournament has been fixed for three weeks in March, 2025, as there are also plans to have a two-week competition in Abuja sometime in February.
Nigeria Tennis Live will keep all our readers updated on the latest developments concerning the competition as well as other tournaments being organized.