The 2017 edition of the Governor’s Cup Lagos Tennis Championship will witness great influx of players across the world when the International Tennis Federation (ITF) approved competition gets underway from October 6 through October 21 at the Lagos Lawn Tennis Club, Onikan, Lagos.
As at last Saturday, the ITF posted on its website that 540 emerging world tennis players have registered to participate in the pro circuit competition which will last for two weeks at Nigeria’s Centre of Excellence.
Interestingly, nine of the women players coming this year are regular faces in Lagos, while the likes of Conny Perrin of Switzerland, Tadeja Majeric from Slovakia, Christina Dinu of Romania Chanel Simmonds of South Africa and Tessah Andrianjaftrimo of France were former champions.
Others such as Alexandria Riley of USA, Valeria Bhunu of Zimbabwe, Ukrainian Valeriya Strakhova, Austrian Melanie Klaffner and Indian Kyra Shroff had played regularly on the courts of Lagos Lawn Tennis Club.
In the men’s category, Duncan Mugabe of Uganda, Egyptian Karim-Mohamed Mammuh, Italian Akexandro Bega, French Gianni Mina, Takanyi Garaganga from Zimbabwe and Polish Maciej Smola are also regular faces in Lagos as well.
The players spread across all the continents of the world will be coming from 67 countries.
They will converge on Lagos to fight for the $100,000 prize money and world ranking points.
Some of the countries where the players are coming from include; the Slovakia, France, Serbia, Germany, Greece, Great Britain, Italy, Argentina, USA, Tunisia, Turkey, Spain, South Africa, The Netherlands, Bulgaria, Croatia, Switzerland, Ghana, Cote D’Ivoire, Cameroon, New Zealand and Canada.
Others are Hungary, Mexico, Egypt, Venezuela, Zimbabwe, Paraguay, Japan, Colombia, Pakistan, India, Sweden, Turkey and a host of others.
The Tournament Director, Prince Wale Oladunjoye, said he was not surprised that the Governor’s Cup Lagos Tennis Championship, which enters its 17th edition this year will witness heavy traffic like this.
According to the seasoned sports administrator, the host state, Lagos and indeed the Governor of the state, Mr Akinwumi Ambode’s support for the championship since he assumed office is commendable.
He said the Local Organising Committee (LOC) headed by Chief Pius Akinyelure in conjunction with Nigeria Tennis Federation (NTF) will leave nothing to chance to ensure that this year’s competition is memorable.
Already, tickets to watch matches for the entire two weeks duration of the event are on sale online on the platforms of Ariya Tickets and Naija Tickets Shop.
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