Top seed, Abdulmumuni Babalola, has said that experience and dedication guided him to his 6th men’s singles title of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Senior Tennis Championships.
Tidesports source gathered that Babalola defeated Joseph Imeh, the most experienced junior player at the tennis courts of the National Stadium, Lagos, won 6-4, 6-3  at the weekend.
An elated Babalola, who was recently elected the players’ representative on the board of the Nigeria Tennis Federation (NTF), said that hard work saw him through the final.
Babalola thanked CBN for the annual championships and challenged other corporate organisations to sponsor tennis competitions for players to have regular championships that would make them develop.
“Tennis in Nigeria is really growing because the unseeded players have for the past three years now been giving the seeded and more experienced players a run for their money.
“I had to really prepare very well so that my opponent, Joseph, do not disgrace me,” he said.
Meanwhile, in the women’s singles, last year’s CBN junior champion, Mary Love Edwards was beaten to the title by top seed, Sarah Adegoke 6-0, 6-3.
Adegoke was quick to note that “five years down, I was defeated by a top seed and today I have won this competition.
“Words can’t express how I feel about my win and I’ll say this; my opponent is a good player though she needs to work more on her footwork.
“I won this game because I was able to capitalise on my opponent’s weak footwork, so I placed my balls at the corners of her court”.
Other winners include Babalola and Shehu Lawal who won the men’s doubles.
Blessing Samuel and Christie Agugbom claimed the women’s doubles, while in the wheelchair men’s singles, Adewale Alex won and Kafayat Omisore clinched the women’s singles title.
The CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, while praising the players for their efforts, said the organisation was happy to promote the competition to the benefit of the youth.
Emefiele, represented by the Deputy Governor, Financial System Stability, Joseph Nnanna, said they would continue to improve to make the sport grow in the country.
“We feel glad that Nigerian youths are doing well in tennis.
“The prize money is not the problem in sponsoring the tourney. We will continue to improve on the tournament and tennis too.
“The winners will be sponsored to Equatorial Guinea for the African Championships after which they will have the opportunity to participate at the Davis Cup to be held in Egypt.”
Tide sports gathered that the total prize money for the 2017 edition in which no fewer than 400 players featured is N11.2 million.
The tennis event which served off on May 29 ended on June 3.