Nigeria for Junior African tourney
Foremost junior tennis stars Sunday Emmanuel and Alice Izomor would early April lead four other
prodigious talents to the 2004 African junior Tennis Championships in Cairo,Egypt. Other players include Blessing Samuel,Emmanuel Dickson and Cletus Phillips.All are presently building up to the tournament on the Clay court of the Kaduna Club under the watchful eyes of Coach Ubale Muhammed.
The players,along with their counterparts from 19 other countries including hosts Egypt,will feature in three different under-age tournament categories.These are the Under-14,Under-16 and Under-18.
Speaking in an interview with nigeriasports.com Wednesday from his Minna base,President of the Nigeria Tennis Federation[NTF] Engr.Sanni Ndanusa,disclosed that selection of the would-be Nigerian representatives was based on previous performance.
Said him:"The players were called to camp based on their performances in past tournaments especially at the circuits in Ghana and Togo,and at the Secondary Schools Championships.
"There is no doubt that these are the best crop of playres we have presently at the junior level.We have taken them to Kaduna basically because there exists a kind of surface on which they are going to play in Cairo and also because we want them to be far away from distraction."
Ndanusa revealed that the NTF has already received three flight tickets from KLM Airline,to
enable the players make the trip to Egypt."Though we are still looking for more of such donation,"he added.
The Nigerian contingent is expected to depart Lagos for Cairo on April 5.Players who excelled at the African junior competition will have the opportunity of featuring in the World Championships that come up later in the year.
By Dipo Okubanjo
0
Not Registered yet ? Click here to Register. |
TennisSport Vote |
