The 2004 Heineken international tennis championship will finally come to an end to today after 14 days of fierce contest.
For the past two weeks, budding tennis stars from across the globe have been engaged in tough contests for a share of the fifty thousand US dollars prize money. Apart from the prize money, precious ITF points are also at stake.
And it has been quite rewarding for some, particularly, the European and Asian players who have dominated the courts since the commencement of hostilities.
Nigerian stars have not had much to show for their efforts. Except for the giant strides of US-based Jonathan Igbinovia and the modest achievements of Abdulmumin Babalola and Shehu Lawal, not much was seen of the development-driven efforts of the Tennis Federation of Nigeria under the regime of Engineer Sani Ndanusa.
The Heineken championship will no doubt leave sour memories in the consciousness of Nigerian female tennis players. To say the least, their performances at the ITF-sanctioned tournament were very poor.
Nigerian female tennis players need to be better schooled on the technical, psychological and mental approach to the game.
It is a general consensus among local tennis coaches that our girls are not serious. Unlike their foreign counterparts, they hardly train on their own. When they manage to train, they don’t last the distance.
Aside that, Nigerian female tennis players do not exhibit any ambition to want to go beyond the shores of this country as they feel contented with their outings at home. Little wonder that they see themselves as inferior to their foreign counterparts whenever they come face to face in any contest.
Only Hanna Eke showed some promise when she defeated her Swede opponent in straight sets in the first round of the ladies singles event only to crumble six love, six love in the second round to Jennifer Schmidt.
The tournament has thrown up a lot of youngsters that will rule the world of tennis in no time as names like Sebastian Fitz from Germany, Roger Anderson from south Africa, Victor Bruthams from Slovekia, Juan Cerda from Chile, James Aukland from Great Britain amongst others too numerous to mention will soon start enjoying limelight in ATP tournaments.
The same also goes for the likes of Surina De Beer and Snyman Michelle of South Africa, Allan Broderick from Jamaica, Yevgenia Savransky of Israel, Karin Schlapbach of Switzerland amongst others.
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