Bunmi Ogunyale
World tennis governing body, the International Tennis Federation (ITF) has given players across the world Thursday September 19, 2019 as registration deadline for the first leg of this year’s Lagos Open Tennis Championship.
The Lagos Open, which enters its 19th edition, holds from 7-20 October. It t has been an annual tennis championship being staged to celebrate the sitting governor of Lagos State and also a destination for emerging young tennis players across the world to fight for ATP points, The tournament is played within the course of two weeks (Futures 4 &5) at the Lawn Tennis Club, Onikan, Lagos.
The ITF directed that players should register for the first leg of the tournament latest by 2pm this week’s Thursday, while withdrawal deadline is Tuesday, 24 September, 2019 by 14:00GMT.
The first leg serves off with a day qualifying matches on Monday October 7, while the Main Draws in both the singles and doubles of men and women events start the following day with the final of the leg holding on Sunday October 13, 2019. This leg has as its prize money $50,000 to be shared $25,000 each in both the men and women’s categories.
For the second leg, the ITF also directed that players should register latest by Thursday, 26 September with the withdrawal deadline fixed for Tuesday October 1, 2019. The qualifying matches for the second leg hold on Monday 14 October, with the main draws starting the following day.
The finals of the second leg, which traditionally is the grand finale, with its usual closing ceremony, holds on Sunday October 20, 2019. The Governor of Lagos State, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu and other important dignitaries are expected to watch the finals of the singles events.