24th October, 2012
Tournament Director of the ongoing Governor’s Cup Lagos Tennis Championship, Prince Wale Oladunjoye has commended the commitment and hardwork shown by Nigerian players participating in the ITF-monitored circuit.
Prince Oladunjoye, who made this disclosure to P.M.NEWS at the Lagos Lawn Tennis Club, Onikan, Lagos, emphasised that the players have been as hardworking as their foreign counterparts in the FCMB and Etisalat Nigeria sponsored championship.
“I think the players have shown great seriousness and commitment to match their foreign counterparts since we started this year’s championship. Despite these, they’ve had their constraints as well which is the reason they have not gone farther than they have, but on the average, they’ve been very impressive,” he submitted.
The Senior Special Adviser on Grassroots Sports Development to Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola singled out Henry Atseye for praise, maintaining that the player had improved greatly.
“There have been great improvements by the players, especially Henry Atseye, who has exhibited a high degree of improvement and consistency in in the matches he played, both in the first and second leg of this championship,” he said.
Meanwhile, with no fewer than two Nigerian players retiring from their matches due to injury on Monday, there have been concerns from players suggesting that training before a match may not be necessary.
According to Men’s Singles winner of Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN Open in 2011, Atseye: “I sustained the injury prior to that match against Edkard from Germany and it really affected my performance. If I had known that it would be like that, I wouldn’t have trained at all because I felt that I stood a chance against him.”
Samuel Omoile was the other Nigerian whose match against Zimbabwe’s Mark Fynn was stopped due to total burn out as he couldn’t continue with the match.
—Damilare Okunola