Nigeria Content Online

The
5th CBN Junior Tennis Championship will serve off on Monday, May 2, at
the Lagos Lawn Tennis Club. And a press conference was held yesterday
to herald the championship and also an exhibition match the U-12 and
U-10 national champions. The watch word of the championship is ‘The
future is now’.

As a testament to
that future, Michael Oshewa, the national U-12 champion took on Terry
Das, the U-10 champion, in a match that stretched to over 30 minutes,
with Oshewa finally prevailing 9-6 in the one-set exhibition.

Speaking
afterwards, Faruk Garko, director, governor’s department, who was
represented by Odessa Ogunmola, noted that the CBN Juniors is now the
number one-ranked junior tennis championship in West Africa, a position
it achieved last year.

A part of the
address said, “A key objective of the social responsibility function of
the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is to make positive contributions to
the development of sports through this championship.

“To this end, we
wish to reaffirm the commitment of the management of the CBN to the
continued sponsorship of the tournament towards the promotion and
development of the game of tennis in Nigeria.”

The competition,
which is open to both boys and girls, will be competed for by
youngsters between the ages of 10 and 18. CBN has also initiated a plan
to set up a ‘futures team’.

The CBN
representative added that: “To further consolidate the gains of the
championship and produce world class players, the International Tennis
Academy is setting up a CBN futures team comprising the best eight
players drawn from the 16s and 18 year olds.

“The players will
be assembled for training and taken as a team to national tournaments
and international ranking events while establishing a strong transition
platform for the senior category and tennis development.”

The above model sponsored by the Bank of Scotland produced the current world number four player, Andy Murray.

The boys and girls who impress during the one-week tourney can win
rackets, tennis gear and also scholarships to some American
universities.