NNPC Junior Circuit move to Port-Harcourt

The players had good food, different tee shirts and towels, water on the court and accommodation at the famous Hamdala hotel.
Mr Bart van der Gritten, the Dutch who is chairman of the Co-Foundation Tennis Academy in Kaduna, told  reporters: “This is an extremely well organized tournament. I have been around for a long while and when people say they are organizing tournaments you do not see anything even though they have lots of money. The organizers even brought a racquet stringing machine and a stringer to restring racquets free for the children. Look at the food and the new nets brought for the tournament. This is very special.”

The best day for most of us was Saturday which featured some of the semi final and final matches. The match between the highly mobile Christian Paul from the Co-foundation and Kalada Kienka in the boys 14 was so explosive that no one could leave the arena while the match lasted. Kalada finally overpowered the younger lad with his powerful ground strokes 4-6, 6-3 6-1.

“This is the future of Nigerian tennis right here.” Mr Kienka who showed very little emotion even when his son had lost the first set told reporters. Christian eventually won the most outstanding player award after winning the boys 12 title beating teammate Anthony Leo in straight sets. The girls also showed that they could have a lot more to offer than their senior counterparts as they hit the ball really hard instead of the ping pong the senior girls play. The Okoro sisters were a delight to watch. Chika Okoro, most outstanding player at both the Equity Bank and Prime Interface Junior Championships moved up to the 14s but was upset by Lolia Kienka in the girls’14 finals. Lolia  also won the girls’ 12 event out-rallying hard fighting, defensive player Biola Akewula in three sets of 4-6, 6-4, 6-1. She was therefore an obvious choice for the most outstanding player award in the girls’ category.

 A delighted Kienka said, “We are not just running a tournament we are developing their confidence and self belief and helping them to see the bigger picture which is the millions of dollars available in sponsorship and prize money. If one player comes through to become a world champion and earns those millions of dollars he would make a big difference to his family, his town and his State and there will be a possible band wagon effect where the youths take to sports rather than crime, cultism and vandalism. I am so happy the NNPC believes in this vision of engaging and empowering our youths and creating opportunities for them through sports. We are looking at the country reaping the fruits of this project in about five years.”

Engr. Voka Mukoro, the MD of the Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company who represented the Group Managing Director of the NNPC was even more optimistic. “This is a project dear to the heart of our GMD and from what I have seen here today in three years or less we should have world class players from Nigeria.”

Another impressive thing about the circuit is the strict age screening procedure. Mr Kienka says he does not believe in birth certificates. “I can get my death certificate by myself for peanuts if I want to so we don’t use that. We demand any two years of primary school results and then we add and subtract.” At the Kaduna event even players who had been a part of the circuit from Lagos were disqualified or moved up based on new evidence. Others from Kano, Katsina, Kaduna and Niger where also disqualified but the organizers created a special round robin event for them and housed and fed them.

 Mr Kienka says, “That will not happen again. This was the first time a major junior tournament is taking place in the north and many of the coaches and players claimed they were not aware of the requirement. Now they know. If Boris Becker and Maria Sharapova could win Wimbledon at 17 there is no reason why a 24 year old should be squeezing into 14 and 16 age group events. I am sure that in a year or two the age falsification syndrome in tennis will be wiped out.”

There is no doubt that with the NNPC Junior Tennis circuit the future is now bright for Nigerian tennis and the high level interest and support from the NNPC that was evident in Kaduna will no doubt drive this project to its logical conclusion. The Circuit gets underway today in Port-Harcourt.