AJC Hots Up In Botswana

The main tournament of African Junior Tennis Championship, AJC, gets underway in Gaborone, Botswana with players battling not only to do their countries proud but to get tickets to play in the Junior Wimbledon Grand Slam tournament in London.

Six Nigerian players are among the over 205 players drawn across the continent and some parts of Europe participating in the competition, which will end on Thursday, 8 April.

Team Nigeria that will feature in the AJC comprise; Samuel Omoile, Sarah Adegoke, Joseph Imeh, Emmanuel Idoko, Umaru Balami and Afolarin Akosile. The players are competing in the U-14, 16 and 18 categories.

Before the main tourney which served off yesterday, a warm-up competition was held from 29 March to 3 April, where the players engaged in fierce hostilities to prepare for the real battle.

Reports from Gaborone say that Team Nigeria did not do badly in the pre-tournament event, considering the hot weather they are facing in Botswana. The six Nigerian players in the 18, 16 and 14 and under categories beat all their opponents to place them on vantage position in the main tournament.

In some of the matches played, in the U-14 Boys’ category, Joseph Imeh defeated Chinamo Tadiwa of Zimbabwe 1-6, 6-4, 7-5, while Idoko beat Chiwewete Ngoni 6-3, 6-4.

In the Girls 14, Sarah Adegoke beat Sumaja Budia of Mozambique 6-1, 6-0. In the U-16 Boys’ event, Umaru Balami beat Foo Kune Dylon of Mauritius 6-3, 3-6, 6-1, while Afolarin defeated Didjongon Varonig of Togo 6-0, 6-0 in the Girls U-16 category.

Speaking from the venue of the tourney, coach of Team Nigeria, Ubale Mohammed, who is also the national junior coach, said that initially the weather affected the players during the warm-up tournament, but he was happy that they have acclimitised.

He has high hopes that the players will put up a good show in the main tourney.

“I’m confident that my players will put up a good performance and with what they did during the warm-up tournament, we are on course to making the nation proud,” he said.

“After winning the African Junior Championship hosted by Ghana in January, we went into camping for two weeks which helped. The early camping is responsible for this feat. What also helped the players was the pre-tournament NNPC/Chevron Junior Masters championship, which Omoile won.

“The championship brought together players from the 36 states of the federation and it really helped in putting them in competition mood.”

Mohammed was glad that the tournament will further expose the junior players to robust opportunity that will boost their careers.

He said: “It will be a big exposure for them to get a wild card and participate in the Grand Slam Juniors in Wimbledon. Already, the eagle- eyed team of ITF instructors are on ground in Botswana to spot talents and award them scholarships.