4th October, 2013
The 2013 Governor’s Cup Lagos Tennis will be tough going by the quality of players coming for the International Tennis Federation sanctioned Circuit which holds at the Lagos Lawn Club, Onikan from 11-28 October.
Tournament Director, Prince Wale Oladunjoye, said the 13th edition has been tagged ‘Years of Champions’ because former winners of the competition will be returning to the city of Lagos again to fight for the $80,000 prize money at stake. He said at a media parley held ahead of the serve off date of the competition in Lagos yesterday that some winners in the singles and doubles events had registered with the ITF for the competition. Players such as Russian Nina Bratchikova, who played at the Wimbledon and US Open this year, Slovakian Tadeja Majeric, South African Chanel Simmonds, Swiss Conny Perrin, Melanie Klaffner from Austria and Romanian Cristina Dinu are female stars preparing to hit Lagos for the tournament, while in the men’s singles, the likes of Ruan Roelofse from South Africa and Ranjeet Virali-Murugesan from India are on their way to Lagos.
Chairman of the LOC, Chief Pius Akinyelure noted that this year’s event will be better organised. Top ten Nigerian players are being put in close camp to assist them in their preparation for the tournament. A junior tournament for the U-12 and U-14 would hold simultaneously with the Governor’s Cup, while the Nigeria Tennis Federation will be hosting an invitational wheelchair tennis event in collaboration with the LOC of the Governor’s Cup.
President of Nigeria Tennis Federation, NTF, Engr. Sani Ndanusa said that Nigerian players need ATP points to enable them attend ITF ranking championships and wants them to continue to build on the opportunity that Governor’s Cup avails them annually.
“We have always said that the Governor’s Cup was constituted to help our players garner ATP points and this has been the case over the years.
“This year should be even better than previous years because we have decided to camp the top ten players to enable them perform well” Ndanusa noted.
—Damilare Okunola