Tennis players in the country have heaped praise on the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC,for bankrolling the ongoing tennis league in the country.
Some of the players who stated this in a chat with Tide sports after match day three of the league series between Team Muller and Team Kalotari at the Port Harcourt club said the championship has given tennis a facelift in the country.
Joseph Imeh who plays for Team Kalotari and ranked in the top five brackets in the country said the NCC tennis league has also given tennis players the opportunity to improve their game.
Though no Nigerian player is in the top five hundred brackets in the world rankings, Imeh said with more competitions geared towards competing with foreign players and participation in circuits outside the country, one of them could hit the mark less than five years from now.
“Tennis in the country is getting better and competitions like this will help improve our standard of play,”Imeh said.
“It is possible for a Nigerian player to make it to the top five hundred in the ATP world rankings but that can only happen if we have more competitions that will attract foreign players in Nigeria and participate in International Tennis Federation circuit outside the country.”
Number three ranked female tennis player in the country, Blessing Samuel re-echoed the sentiment of Joseph Ibeh stressing that tennis in the country can be as popular as football, if the corporate world invest more in the sport just as the NCC  is doing at the moment.
She added that the NCC tennis league has kept them busy unlike in time past when they have to wait for months before participating in a competition.
Samuel also harped on the need to sponsor tennis players to competition outside the country so as to give them the required exposure to boost their world rankings.