37th CBN Tennis Championship Serves off in Lagos

The 37th Central Bank of Nigeria Tennis Championship is scheduled to begin in Lagos today May, 14 through May 23 with about 200 players in attendance.

CBN’s Director Corporate Communications, Ibrahim Mu’azu, at a press briefing in Lagos yesterday said the championship, which has been the foundation to which Nigerian tennis is laid will, among others, serve as the platform for the selection of players that will represent Nigeria at the forthcoming Commonwealth Youth Games in Samoa and the All Africa Games billed for August in Congo.

He added that the wheelchair tennis, which was introduced to the championship in 2013 will also feature this year.

Mu’azu stressed that the wheelchair has helped in Nigeria’s dominance in Africa following the country’s winning of the African qualifier for the World Cup which took place in the Netherlands last year.

Players are to compete in five categories namely singles ( men and women) doubles (men and women) as well as mixed doubles.

The singles’ champions will each receive N700, 000 while finalists will pocket N500, 000. The champions and finalists for men and women in the wheelchair event will get N250, 000 and 200, 000.

Meanwhile, players are to sign a code of conduct for the championship.

NTF President, Sani Ndanusa, said the move is in line with the global best practice.

“We are instilling discipline in the players as it is done in major tournaments across the world because no player is bigger than the federation, said Ndanusa, who was represented by NTF’s 1st Vice- president, Yemi Owoseni.