ABEOKUTA – The fourth edition of annual tennis holiday clinic will serve off today in Abeokuta, Ogun state capital.
The competition organized by Rock Tennis Foundation in partnership with Nigeria Tennis Federation and Ogun State Tennis Association will kick off between January 3 to 7th, 2023 at the Green Courts of Abeokuta Sports Club, Ibara Housing Estate, Abeokuta, Ogun State.
According to a release signed by the Media Officer, Ogun State Tennis Association, Segun Olukoga, the competition was part of efforts toward producing world class tennis players in the state.
The Media Officer said participants were drawn from the thirty-six states of the federation including FCT.
Olukoga explained that, the championship will feature U-16 national open and U-12 closed tournaments amongst other.
He stressed further that, there will also be open clinic and Davis cup style doubles for young players between ages 6 and 12.
According to the statement, Tennis Head coach, Kehinde Ijaola maintained that, the association is passionately committed to developing talented, professional young tennis players in the state.
He said, one of Ogun State tennis players would be travelling to USA this month on scholarship and will be playing college tennis at the university.
Mr. Ijaola maintained that, the target is to continue to produce one of the best players in the world.
“The foundation promotes GRASSROOTS development tennis program from time to time, combined with tournament. Unlike last year, we did southwest edition but this year’s will be national under 16; we want to make sure that kids we have been training over the years are expose to national and international competitions. That’s why we want to see their ability by engaging other tennis players from other parts of the country. So it is a clinic for beginners, and existing players to feature in tournament.”
One of the organizers and a tennis player, AKINYEMI BANMEKE said, the tournament has gulped estimated fifty million naira since inception, four years ago, and the foundation would continue to expand the scope of the tennis clinic as a legacy to further discover talents and develop tennis at the grassroots level as well as encourage wellness in the young citizens; which in the end, will have both long-term and short-term positive benefits on the children.
“We are encouraging government to be more collaborative and create a template to developing grassroots tennis players because that’s what we doing here, to catch them young, get them off the street, to engage them using tennis,” the statement concluded.
