Players in the top 200 world rankings are set to storm Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial capital to participate in this year’s Governor’s Cup Lagos Tennis Championship, Nigerian Tennis Live has gathered.
According to findings, these players are also among over 500 others who have already signified their interest in attending the 2017 edition of the annual pro ITF Circuit which gets underway from 6-21 October at the Lagos Lawn Tennis Club, Onikan.
As at Saturday, 23 September, the ITF posted on its website that 540 emerging world tennis players have registered to participate in the pro circuit competition which will lasted for two weeks at the Nigeria’s Centre of Excellence.
Interestingly, nine of the women players coming this year are regular faces in Lagos, while the likes of Conny Perrin of Switzerland, Tadeja Majeric from Slovakia, Christina Dinu of Romania Chanel Simmonds of South Africa and Tessah Andrianjaftrimo of France were former champions.
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| Conny Perrin is among the other top world stars who have attended the tournament before and have signified thir interest in attending again this year. |
Others such as Alexandria Riley of USA, Valeria Bhunu of Zimbabwe, Ukrainian Valeriya Strakhova, Austrian Melanie Klaffner and Indian Kyra Shroff had played regularly on the courts of Lagos Lawn Tennis Club.
In the men’s category, Duncan Mugabe of Uganda, Egyptian Karim-Mohamed Mammuh, Italian Alexandro Bega, French Gianni Mina, Takanyi Garaganga from Zimbabwe and Polish Maciej Smola are also regular faces in Lagos as well.
The players spread across all the continents of the world will be coming from 67 countries. They will converge in Lagos to fight for the 100,000 dollars prize money and the world ranking points.
Some of the countries include the host, Nigeria, Slovakia, France, Serbia, Germany, Greece, Great Britain, Italy, Argentina, USA, Tunisia, Turkey, Spain, South Africa, The Netherlands, Bulgaria, Croatia, Switzerland, Ghana, Cote D’Ivoire, Cameroon, New Zealand and Canada.
Others are Hungary, Mexico, Egypt, Venezuela, Zimbabwe, Paraguay, Japan, Colombia Pakistan, India, Sweden, Turkey and a host of others.
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| Zimbabwe’s Takanyi Garanganga (right) is also among the former players who will be making a return to this year’s championship after attending in previous years. |
Prince Wale Oladunjoye, the Tournament Director said he was not surprised that the Governor’s Cup Lagos Tennis Championship, which enters its 17th edition this year will witness heavy traffic like this.
According to the seasoned sports administrator, the host state, Lagos, and its governor, Mr. Akinwumi Ambode’s support for the championship since he assumed office is commendable.
He said the Local Organising Committee (LOC) headed by Chief Pius Akinyelure in conjunction with Nigeria Tennis Federation (NTF) will leave nothing to chance to ensure that this year’s competition is memorable.
Already, tickets to watch matches for the entire two weeks duration of the event are on sale online on the platforms of Ariya Tickets and Naija Tickets Shop.