By Ifeanyi Eduzor
Activities marking the 41st edition of the annual Central Bank of Nigeria Senior Tennis tournament have commenced at the tennis courts of the package ‘B’ of the National Stadium Abuja Complex and will run till Saturday June 29, 2019.
Director, Corporate Communications Department, Central Bank of Nigeria, Isaac Okorafor who revealed this said, the CBN Senior Tennis tournament was held in Abuja for the firs time t in 2018 to commemorate the 40th anniversary edition of the championship and that the success recorded has prompted the management of the apex bank into making a return by approving the staging of the 2019 edition of the championship in the Federal Capital Territory.
Okorafor who reaffirmed the objective of the annual tournament to include to discovering of talents that would represent Nigeria at major international competitions, be it the Olympics Games, Commonwealth Games, All Africa Games and even world championships among others, said this year’s edition is not going to be anything different, adding that the tournament would also help to better the global ranking of Nigeria players with the international Tennis Federation and as well create channel for the development of the sports in the domestic front among the youth and the physically challenged in our society.
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According to him, those who have played in the tournament in the past have gone ahead to wear the Green White Green colours of Nigeria at various international championships where they competed favourably with the rest of world and hopes that in no distant time, products of the CBN Tennis would surpass the ranking of those predecessors like Nduka Odizor who reached his highest ATP ranking in June, 1984 when he was ranked 52 in the world.
The Corporate Communications Department Director reassures the CBN commitment to continue to invest in Nigeria youth through sports which to them, is part of the apex bank’s social responsibility function as could be seen from the CBN Junior Tennis championship held last month at the Tarawa Balewa Square, Race Course Lagos which featured U-10 to 18 boys and girls categories.
For the 2019 CBN Senior Tennis, action will be in men’s and women’s singles, men’s and women’s doubles and the wheelchair categories.
The men’s and women singles events would be drawn in round 64 chat format while the men’s and women’s doubles would observe round 32 chat actions.
