Nigeria Content Online

The
camping of Nigerian junior tennis players earlier scheduled for last
week in Kaduna will now kick off on January 14, 2011, in Ado Ekiti.
This was confirmed by team coach, Mohammed Ubale, who spoke from Abuja.

Ubale, who led the
team to the championship last year said, “We had to change the date
because of the logistics of the tournament which has changed”.

The championship
that is to be played in Accra, Ghana, was originally scheduled for clay
courts but it will now take place on hard courts.

“We had a
correspondence with the Ghana tennis federation which confirmed the
change of courts and the start up date and we had to make our own
changes. But everything has been worked out and the players will
converge in Ado Ekiti from today,” Ubale said.

The camp was
supposed to have held in Kaduna, which has a preponderance of clay
courts, but Ado-Ekiti was chosen after the favourable reviews from last
year when the national team was initially camped there before they
moved to Abuja, venue of the Africa Junior Tennis Championship held in
April 2010.

Umoru Balami, who
will lead the team to the championship, has been described as “a very
promising player” by Dermot Sweeney, the academy director of the
International Tennis Federation (ITF) Training Centre, Pretoria, South
Africa.

“He (Balami) has
got an overall good game for the future. He is expected back in South
Africa by the end of this month or early February,” Sweeny said.

Balami, who has
been training in Kaduna in preparation for the Ghana trip, has just
secured another one year scholarship at the centre. He said he is very
optimistic that Nigeria can come out as champions in the one-week
tournament.

“Last year, we
played well but we were a little bit inexperienced but now, I believe
that I am better prepared for the challenges of the trip.

“Though I know that
other players will have improved also, I believe that I will be able to
hold my own and help Nigeria come out tops.”

Balami got to the
third round of the 33rd African Junior Championships that was held last
year before he headed for the South Africa based ITF Tennis academy.

Ghana won the team
trophy at the 2010 ITF/CAT West and Central African Junior
Championships, courtesy of victories by Elisabeth Kapari and Francis
Akpese over Nigerians in the girls’ and boys’ 14 categories. Nigeria
came second with Umoru Balami, winning silver in the boys’ 16 and under
category. But the Nigerian was defeated by Tunde Segodo of Benin in the
final.

The 2011 ITF/CAT West and Central African Junior Championships will kick off on January 24 in Accra.