UK-based Nigerian Gifts Akpan, Lucky New Rackets, Shoes After Emotional Stories By Nigeria Tennis Live

Michael Emmanuel and Lucky Danjuma are now recipients of new rackets and shoes respectively, after their emotional stories were told by Nigeria Tennis Live.

The players shared their stories, detailing how they’ve had to live through different means to survive and stay afloat with their tennis activities.

Emmanuel, aka Akpan, was one of Nigeria’s brightest stars at the Davis Cup Africa Group III qualifying event in Abuja, where he helped Nigeria gain promotion to World Group II Playoffs in 2025.

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After the competition, the Abuja-based tennis talent revealed that he did not even have rackets to play the competition as the ones he used were from Coach Benson Ishicheli, who insisted that the player was good enough to stand tall at the tournament.

Akpan revealed that he has had to struggle to play tennis and participated in the national tournament in Abuja prior to the Davis Cup event with a racket handed to him by a member of the Abuja Country Club where he trains regularly.

In the interview with Nigeria Tennis Live after his exploits in Abuja, Akpan’s request was simple and straightforward: “I need a lot of help in terms of sponsorship. I need to play more tournaments and not stay on a spot after this. Get me equipment to play with and I guess I’ll be fine.”

Danjuma, also known to be one of Nigeria’s untapped raw tennis talents, spoke with our correspondent, where he revealed that he wants to play tennis despite being an orphan.

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According to the 17-year-old youngster: “My plan is to play tennis after my high school education. I want to play ATP tennis. But it’s really hard in this country where there’s no form of sponsorship”.

As at the time this report was filed, Danjuma was the eight-highest Nigerian junior player on the ITF ranking, however, he has since participated in and reached his first ever J60 final at the junior ITF event in Accra, Ghana.

And as things stand, he is currently among the top six Nigerians on the world junior rankings after some unbelievable performances in Ghana, where he took out top juniors.

In a swift response to Akpan’s request, a kind-hearted Nigerian living in the United Kingdom reached out to our correspondent and offered to buy rackets for the player.

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The person, a woman, asked to know Akpan’s favourite racket among other details, and promised to send the rackets after acquiring them. She also took note of Danjuma’s article and promised to send him a pair of shoes to help with his tennis development.

Not only did she send rackets and shows for Akpan and Danjuma, she also sent in two junior Slazenger rackets for junior tennis players as well as a roll of strings for a player (or players) to be determined by Nigeria Tennis Live.

And true to her words, the items arrived Nigeria on Sunday, 13 October, 2024 and were given to the players on Sunday, 20 October, 2024.

“For me I wanted to give the best, considering they are professional players than I am and I won’t use any less for myself,” the kind-hearted Nigerian said after splashing almost N2,000,000 (two million naira) on the items she got.

Danjuma who first received the items was full of smiles as he wouldn’t stop admiring his new pair of asics tennis shoes.

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Akpan, on his part, was full of appreciation to the kind-hearted Nigerian who refused to be mentioned of identified.

He said: “Good day ma, I am glad to receive the items you sent to me. I am really happy about them and I want to say a very big thank you to you ma.

“I have never seen you before but with this, I know you are a nice person I pray God continues to bless you”.

Nigeria Tennis Live will keep putting Nigerian players on the map for the world to see, for possible sponsorship, scholarship or any kind of support.