Nigeria Content Online

The
final list of players to represent Nigeria at the 13th International
Tennis Federation ITF/CAT West and Central Africa 14 & 16 Junior
Championship qualifiers has been revealed.

Coach of the team,
Mohammed Ubale, revealed the players on phone from Ado-Ekiti, where the
team is camped. Ubale said that they had a round-robin tournament
between the players to sift the best of the players. Their current
status and fitness was also taken into consideration before four
players were decamped.

Umoru Balami will
lead the team to Ghana and he said the key to winning in Ghana is hard
work. Balami, who has been praised by Dermot Sweeney of the ITF Centre
in South Africa, said:

“I work hard and
try to do all that the coaches ask of me to do and I believe that is
why I have been improving in my game. I know that practising is the way
to get better and I always make sure that I focus on training. My aim
is to win the Ghana tournament though I know it will be hard but I
believe I have prepared adequately to win my event.”

Another member of the Accra-bound team, Sarah Adegoke, is seeded number one in the 14 and under category for girls.

Adegoke is also a SS2 student at the St. Louis Secondary School, Ibadan and has been coached by her father,

Dapo, all her life. The elder Adegoke is with his daughter in Ado-Ekiti, as she prepares to represent Nigeria in Ghana.

“My aim is to win in Ghana. I am training harder than before and I know that if I am not lazy then I can win,” she said.

Her father who
coaches her full-time will not be following her to Ghana but Adegoke
said that would not dampen her determination to excel.

“Daddy won’t be
coming to Ghana but Coach Ubale is like a father to me. I have been
training under him also since I came into the national camp last year,
so I will not miss my daddy too much.”

Adegoke has on account of her consistency and improvement been invited for a one-month trial at the ITF Centre in Pretoria.

The other players
that make up the team are Joseph Imeh, Emmanuel Idoko and Mohammed
Mohammed, for the boys and Zainab Oladimeji, Miracle Sunday and Ramota
Adeyemi for the girls.

The ITF/CAT West
and Central Africa 14 & 16 Junior Championship qualifiers being
hosted by Ghana and will be held at the National Sports College,
Winneba from January 24-30, 2011.

While the first
match is scheduled begin by 9:30am on January 24, the match fixtures
will be sorted after the draw on Sunday, January 23 after the arrival
of the 13 participating countries.

The 13 countries
participating include: Benin Republic, Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire,
Democratic Republic of Congo (RD Congo), Gabon, Ghana, Guinea Bissau,
Liberia, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo.

The championship will also serve as the qualifiers to the Africa Junior Championships to be hosted by Egypt in April 2011.