NSC To Support Home-based Tennis Players -Yakmut

The Acting Director-
General of the National Sports Commission (NSC), Alhassan Yakmut, has said that the commission would offer support to home-based tennis players in the country.
Yakmut spoke to newsmen on the sidelines of the ongoing Tombim Abuja Open, an International Tennis Federation (ITF) Futures event taking place in Abuja.
He said plans were ongoing to ensure that Nigerian tennis players were given the necessary support to enable them compete favourably with others from the rest of the world.
“The SWOT analysis we got from our technicians and experts in tennis has shown that lack of exposure has affected, tremendously, the Nigerian players.
“As a commission, we have taken up the challenge and are talking to various sponsors.
“We are inviting them to not only sponsor the hosting of tennis tournaments in the country, but also sponsor the participation of our home-based players outside the country.
“Also, the plan is for government to go into a public/private partnership with these corporate organisations to ensure that Nigerian players pile up points as many as possible in other Futures outside the country,” Yakmut said.
The NSC acting director-general also gave Nigerians assurance of his unflinching support to the growth of tennis, as well as other sports in the country.
“My plan is to lend my support to the Minister of Sports/NSC Chairman, as well as my colleagues in the Commission, to ensure that we take sports in Nigeria to the next level.
“We will ensure that we carry out this mandate especially by using standard practices that are acceptable to international norms,” he added.
The Tombim Abuja Open Men’s Circuit two-leg event is taking place at the National Tennis Centre of the Abuja National Stadium, and it began on April 27.
The first phase of the competition ended last weekend, while the second phase, which began on Monday, will end on Sunday.
Six Nigerian players made it to the round of 16 in the singles event, thus, securing the ITF ranking points.
They are Clifford Enosoregbe, Paul Christian, Albert Bikom, Moses Michael, Henry Atseye and Thomas Otu. However, only Michael managed to reach the quarter-finals where he was knocked out 6-2, 6-2 by Croatia’s Matija Pecotic, the eventual winner of the first phase of the competition.
The 14-day tournament has 32 players from 18 countries eyeing the prize money of 15,000 U.S. dollars.
The players are from Nigeria, Togo, Croatia, Ghana, the U.S., Germany, India, South Africa, Brazil, Spain, Russia, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Canada, France, Moldova, Zambia and UK.