Festac Town FHA Lawn Tennis Club is playing host to the top eight tennis players (men and women) based in Nigeria, who have assembled at the Club for the inaugural Invitational Tennis Masters, which kicked off on Tuesday, April 8, at the reconstructed Tennis Club facility.
With the standard of tennis in the country going higher, the tournament is expected to produce some exciting matches as players try to attract sponsors for their professional tennis careers.
The men’s draw will be missing Chris Bulus, Nigeria’s No.1 and only ATP-ranked tennis professional, who is in America pursuing a professional tennis career, and Emmanuel Michael Akpan, the No.2, who is in Tunisia playing a professional tennis tournament under the ambit of the AURUM Academy.
The women’s draw will miss Oyin Quadri and Marylove Edwards, both in American Colleges on tennis scholarships, and ageless Anu Aiyegbusi, who is in Saudi Arabia working as a coach.
However, tournament organiz,ers say the field is one of the strongest ever with Bright Essien vowing to make up for her narrow loss to Khadijat Mohammed at the RainOil Championships in February in a match that lasted 3hrs 30 mins with a final set tie-break.
In the men’s draw, Canice Abua, Daniel Adeleye, Ikechukwu Iloputa, Mohammed Musa, and Philip Abayomi will be top contenders for the N500,000 winners’ purse,
The grand finale is scheduled for Saturday, April 12, at 3 pm.