19th March, 2013
Nigeria’s revelation at last year’s Governor’s Cup Lagos Tennis Championship, Kehinde Alade, has made a passionate call to Nigeria Tennis Federation, NTF to organise more local tournaments for players in the country.
Speaking told P.M.NEWS Tennis Special on arrival from South Africa where he played a two-week tournament that “it will be good if the NTF can organise more local tournaments for players in the country this year. The reason is that we need tournaments not only to keep the players busy throughout the year, but to also keep them fit and be on top of their game at all times.”
“The prize money doesn’t have to be too much. For instance, the NTF can organise tournament where a winner wins $1, 000 and if this is converted to Naira, it is not too much,” he said.
Alade, a student of Yaba College of Technology said that exposure rather than the prize money has been the motivating factor for him going abroad to play circuits. He disclosed that he had to sponsor himself with the assistance of a sponsor to South Africa. “Playing tournaments helps exposing players. You can believe that in the tournament I went to play in South Africa, I lost out in the quarter final and I was given $400 with racquets and bags. I was so happy with these because the competition exposed me to certain thing I didn’t know before. “For some of us who are always clamouring for sponsorship, we shouldn’t rely so much on the sponsors, we should try to bail ourselves out first before sponsors will come to assist us in any other logistics,” Alade said.
—Damilare Okunola