BY ADEYEMI ROBINSON-ADEFIOYE, LAGOS
The CHEVRON JUNIOR TENNIS CHAMPIONSHIP will serve-off on Wednesday, October 23 at the prestigious LAGOS LAWN TENNIS CLUB at the heels of the two weeks long Lagos Open tournament.
The tournament will feature 64 players competing in two age groups – boys and girls 12s and 16s
The Chevron Junior Championship will be a fitting climax to a project which took tennis to over 1500 boys and girls in seven target communities and had the best of them prepared for competitions.
The project is already producing eye-catching results as players from the program are already punching above their weight and breaking into the senior and professional ranks.
SEUN AKINWUMI, 12, paired his teammate DANIEL ADELEYE ,15, to win the doubles event at the National Youth Games in Ilorin for Ekiti State.
The girls singles title was won by DESTINY OKHINAYE, 14, for Lagos State. The 16 year-olds were excluded from the competition.
At the senior level, eight of the juniors got into the main draw of the CBN SENIOR OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP with two of the girls reaching the quarterfinals and getting invitations to the All Africa Games camp.
Two of the junior girls, SERENA TELUWO and OMOLADE ADEREMI played in the main draw of the Lagos Open – a professional tournament.
This week’s competition is expected to produce a lot of fireworks with defending champion in the Girls’ 16, REBECCA EKPEYONG, going against in-form players like TELUWO and OKHINAYE.
OMOLAYO BAMIDELE and ADEREMI, finalist and semifinalist of the last edition have been promoted into the senior category.
The boy’s 16 category will also be missing the rivalry between DAVID DAWARIYE of the South-South and SULEIMAN MOHAMMED of Abuja who have been promoted to the seniors.
However, 14 year-old DAVID EKPEYONG and ADELEYE will be favourites to win the boys 16 event.
The boys and girls 12s is expected to throw up the regular rivalries.
FAVOUR AMAECHI from the South-South, MARY AZI from the North Central and NENE YAKUBU from the South West in the girl’s event while OGUNSAKIN South West, LUCKY DANJUMA and YAKUBU YAHONNA of the North Central and PRECIOUS IKEUBA of South-South stand out as the top contenders.
According to the INTERNATIONAL TENNIS ACADEMY, organisers of the championship, entry into the venue is free and matches will start at 10 am each day and end at 4.30pm.
The grand finale is scheduled for Sunday, October 27 starting 12 noon.
