The Nigeria Tennis Federation (NTF) has unveiled its 2021 activities aimed at enhancing the development of the game in the country, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports.
Dayo Abulude, the Secretary General of the Federation, said on Wednesday in Abuja that the Federation would be organisimg various local tournaments, as well as participate in international competitions.
He said these would include wheelchair international tournaments’ World Qualifiers, and the International Tennis Federation (ITF) World Tennis Junior, scheduled for March in Portugal.
The NTF Secretary-General added that the annual Tombim Open, Dayak Open, DSL Open would all be held in Abuja in April.
“Each of the tournament runs for a week invariably. We are going to have three weeks to run the three tournaments which are annual tournaments.
“From the last week of April , we are expected to kick off with Tombim Abuja Open, followed by Dayak Abuja open, a week after and lastly DSL Abuja open, which is expected to end by middle of May.
“These tournaments have been happening for the past few years, and they are going to be continuing,” he said, explaining that the three tournaments are jointly sponsored by three friends.
He said that the Federation was expected to stage the Puma Wheelchair tournament in November.
Abulude said the Federation would also organise local tournaments in the country during the year, listing them to include the CBN Open, RainOil Tournament, Dala Hard Court, and VEMP national tournament, sponsored by Dayo Akindoju, President of the Tennis Federation.
” We normally have the CBN tournament, the last edition we held was the 42nd edition and we are going to have the 43rd edition of CBN open this year.
“We will also organise the RainOil tournament that will be held in Abuja. There is also the Dala Hard Court tournament, which is going to be held in Kano,” he said.
The Federation secretary also said the Lagos Open, an International tournament, co-sponsored by the Lagos State government and the Nigerian Tennis Federation, would also feature in 2021.
He added that there would be a meeting of the Federation, with board members, stakeholders, umpires, coaches to discuss developments in the game of tennis, pointing out that the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, thwarted the Federation’s programmes.
“We pray that this year the pandemic will allow us to fully participate in all our international tournaments, as well as enable us organise our local tennis tournaments successfully,” he said.(NAN)
