Nigerian Players Upbeat Over Governor’s Tennis Cup

Nigerian players participating in the ongoing Lagos Governor’s Cup Tennis Championships have promised a better performance to make up for their past poor showings.

Tidesports source reports that in the past nine editions, no Nigerian player had reached the quarter-finals of the two-legged competition.

The players who spoke with Tidesports source on Monday in Lagos said they were better prepared for the current championships than the previous ones.

“I think we have gained more experience with some of us taking part in the previous editions. Our performance in the past are not due to a lack of skill but exposure.

“But 10 years in any continuous competition with almost the same players participating in three of four editions are enough for any player to have good experience to do well,” Shehu Lawal said.

Fatima Abinu said the long training the Nigerian players had before the competition would help to improve their performance.

“I think we are better prepared for the competition than in the previous editions.

“The Nigeria Tennis Federation organised training for all Nigerian players who qualified for the championships in Kaduna, Ado-Ekiti and Port Harcourt.

“These have prepared us for the championships and put us in a competition mood unlike before that we all trained on our own and not as a team,” Abinu said.

A former national champion and coach, Thomson Onibokun, said the lack of exposure was responsible for the country’s poor showings in the championships.

“It is unfortunate that we find ourselves at this stage; we are not progressing in the game at all, compared to the 1960s and 1970s when Nigeria dominated tennis in Africa.

“Now it is a shame that Togo and Cote d’Ivore are doing better than us in tennis.

“Some of our players do not even have standard equipment to play with. The only way out of this is to invest in the game.

“There should be provision for standard equipment, sponsored local competitions at least twice a year and our players should be exposed to international competitions,” Onibokun said.

Meanwhile, in some of the matches played on Monday, Nigeria’s Candy Idoko defeated Shtelfen Solomon of South Africa 6-1, 6-4.

Clifford Enosoregbe of Nigeria defeated compatriot Henry Atseye, 6-4, 7-5 and Abuldmumuni Babalola beat Valentin Sanon of Cote d’Ivore 6-4, 6-2.

Kingsley Enosoregbe, also of Nigeria, defeated compatriot Samuel Omoile 6-1, 3-6, 7-6, while Nigeria’s Lawal Shehu lost to Ruan Roelofese of South Africa 6-1, 6-3.

In the women’s category, Fatima Abinu beat Alexandra Riley of the U.S. 6-1, 6-4 and Esther Masuri of Israel defeated Natalia Piqion of France 6-1, 6-1.

Nigeria’s Blessing Samuel defeated her compatriot, Oluwaseun Ogundare, 6-1, 6-4 in the last game.