NAN-S-6
Tennis
By Franklin Ohaegbu
Lagos, Oct. 4, 2016 (NAN) No fewer than 109 players from 39 countries, including Nigeria are to participate in the 16th edition of the Governor’s Cup Lagos Tennis Championship, billed for Oct. 8 to Oct. 22.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the championship is scheduled to hold at the Lagos Lawn Tennis Club in Onikan.
According to the International Tennis Federation (ITF), the players will jostle for the $100,000 prize money and the Association of Tennis Players (ATP) points in a two-part tournament.
They would also compete for honours in the singles and doubles events of both the men and women’s categories.
Interestingly, this year’s competition will see the return of some former champions of the Governor’s Cup to the city of Lagos.
Top on the list is Enrique Lopez-Perez from Spain, who won the two legs of the tournament in 2012.
Ranked number 174 in the world, the Spanish star is the top seed in the men’s singles this year.
Also to feature is Boy Westerhof of the Netherlands, who won the competition in 2007 and was men’s doubles winner in 2010 edition. He is currently ranked number 313.
Egyptian Karim-Mohamed Mohamed, Duncan Mugabe of Uganda and Mark Fynn of Zimbabwe are some of the old faces to play in the pro-circuit event.
For the first time in the history of the game, Nigeria’s Christian Paul with ATP rank, 1,290, is listed in the main draws of the first leg of the tournament.
Other Nigerian players, who would play preliminaries to the main draws in the qualifying matches – except the wildcards from the ITF, include Sylvester Emmanuel, Moses Michael, Umar Balami and Albert Bisong.
Joseph Ubon, Mohammed Mohammed, Edward Christopher, Adimabua Iyorovbe, Francis Aleji, Emmanuel Ikakah and Ilechukwu Iloputa would also have the chance to fight their ways to the main draws.
In the women’s event, 2013 and 2015 champion, Tadeja Majeric of Slovakia ranked 239, would stage a comeback to Lagos.
She would be joined by regular faces such as Conny Perrin of Switzerland, semi-finalist in last year’s event.
Perrin, who is ranked, 233 is the top seed in the women’s singles.
Others are American Alexandra Riley, Indian Prathana Thombare, a quarter finalist in 2015, Ester Masuri and Keren Shlomo, both from Israel as well as Valeria Bhunu of Zimbabwe.
Melissa Ifidzen is the highest ranked Nigerian lady with 1,029 in the world, while other local ladies listed by the ITF, include Osariemen Airhunmwunde, US-based Omolola Oredugba and Patience Onebamhion.
Also, Loveth Donatus, Ronke Akingbade, Aminat Quadri, Sarah Adegoke, Aanu Ayegbusi and Christie Nwankwo would be competing.
The Secretary of the Nigeria Tennis Federation, Gloria Ekwempu, said that Lagos was ready for the competition.
“All necessary preparations to host the array of foreign stars coming to Lagos for the tourney have been put in place.
“We’ll ensure that visas procurement of the players were easy at our various embassies across the world. We are ready to welcome the world stars to Lagos.
“On the part of our local players, they have been informed.
“As usual, their registrations have to be done online on the website of the ITF where they will pay necessary fees and all other documentations.
“We will be working with the Local Organising Committee to ensure that we stage a memorable 16th Governor’s Cup Lagos Tennis Championship this year,” Ekwempu said.
The scribe said that the technical committee of the federation would soon meet to decide who gets the wildcards for the main draws of this year’s competition among the Nigerian players. (NAN)
FOE/ENN/SN
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(Edited by Edwin Nwachukwu, controlled by Silas Nwoha)