Governor’s Cup And Poor Run Of Nigerian Players

The 13th Governor’s Cup Lagos Tennis Championship ended at the Lagos Lawn Tennis Club, Onikan last week with foreigners stealing the show again. They carted away the $80,000 prize money of the two legs (Futures 1 & 2) of the competition which paraded players from about 40 countries of the world. All this at the expense of Nigerian players who have consistently performed poorly in the tournament year after year.

The winner of the first leg  men’s singles was Croatian Borna Coric, who is the current world’s number one junior player. The women’s category was won by Slovenian Tadeja Majeric. The men’s doubles event of that leg was won by the duo of Ante Pavic from Croatia and South African Ruan Roelofse, while British pair of Naomi Broady and Emily Webley-Smith won the women’s doubles.

In the finals of the second leg which were watched by the Governor of Lagos State, Babatunde Fashola, Croatian Ante Pavic was the winner of the men’s singles, while Gioia Barbieri of Italy won the women’s event.

The pair of Ante Pavic of Croatia and Ruan Roelofse of South Africa were two times lucky as they won the men’s doubles of the second leg again, while Fatma Al Nabhani from Oman and Italian Gioia Barbieri won the women’s doubles.

Despite camping of the local players for a week in Lagos before the tournament early this month by the Nigeria Tennis Federation, NTF, and the Local Organising Committee, LOC,  all the Nigerian players failed to make good impact in the championship sponsored by Etisalat Nigeria and FCMB Plc. Even with the promises made by the LOC and the sponsors to foot the bills of any Nigerian  player that made it to the quarter final of the tourney to any ITF competition within Africa, the local players still failed to raise their game. Rather, it was the foreigners who dictated the pace as they had been doing since 2003 when the competition became an ITF Satellite Series.

The woeful performance by Nigerians is caused by their failure to participate in other tennis tournaments. Many of the foreign players who come to Lagos to play in the Governor’s Cup revealed that in a year, they usually play in at least 20 to 25 ITF-rated competitions. and these always help them to keep fit and remain consistent in their serves as well as earn enough money to travel across the world. But the Nigerian players only have the Governor’s Cup to contend with. Tournaments such as the Ogbe Hard Court Championship in Benin, Edo State, and the Heineken Futures Championship in Lagos which were sponsored by Guinness Plc. and Nigerian Breweries Plc. in the past have been stopped by their sponsors.

Over the years, Nigerian players have turned to spectators during the grand finale of the Governor’s Cup where dignitaries who always include the sitting governor of Lagos State since the administration of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu come to the venue to watch exciting tennis action from emerging world stars who see Lagos as a tennis destination in Africa.

We believe it is time stakeholders of the game in Nigeria saw the need to look into the problems confronting the Nigerian players. The problems are not different from those facing Nigerian society at large.

Private enterprises which should sponsor tournaments complain of dwindling profits in their businesses. Governments at both federal and state levels give excuses that they cannot fund sports alone.

The parents of the players also have a great role to play  by encouraging them to improve their game. At the just concluded Governor’s Cup, some parents came from abroad to Lagos with their children for the competition. The foreign players said they were enjoying the sponsorship of their parents and private organisations in their countries. We can also take a cue from what the foreign players and their parents are doing to improve the fortunes of our players.

Age is also not on the side of most of the senior Nigerian players. This is an area the sport’s ruling body in the country must also address urgently if we must stop playing the second fiddle in the Governor’s Cup Lagos Tennis Championship year after year. There should be a developmental programme for the junior players because they are the future of the game. Anything short of that may sound the death knell for the game in our country.