….It is significant to remember your source
By Adeyemi Robinson-Adefioye, Lagos
One hundred and twenty four tennis players are gathered at the Lagos Lawn Tennis Club for the maiden edition of the Fusion Sports Foundation Summer Tennis Clinic/tournament as Fusion Sports Foundation partners with the prestigious Lagos Tennis Club.
According to organizers, the Summer Tennis clinic and tournament which commenced on the 9th of August is aimed giving a platform to the under-privileged who are talented but have no platform to showcase their worth.
The founder of Fusion Tennis Foundation and former Nigerian Tennis Junior Champion, Fuad Quadri in an exclusive interview told www.sunrisetimes.com.ng in Lagos that the Tennis Foundation is to keep the children busy from all forms of Social Vices through the game of Tennis .
According to Quadri, “this is the sport that gave me everything in life , it is all about creating opportunities for the kids in Lagos through sports. I grew up in Lagos Island, an environment filedl with crimes and all such of illegal things.
“This summer tennis programme is to keep them busy and to keep them away from the streets. What we do in the Foundation is to get as many children as possible into to the game of Tennis and sports in general and channel a plan for their lives and also see if talented ones could play the game as professionals in the future while the not too talented could be helped to get scholarship to study in United States of America.
“It is necessary for someone not to forget his or her source and giving back to the society that made you. Like I said I grew up on the Lagos Island which is filled crime and violence, example most of the children I grew up with some of them have died, some of them have joined the wrong gangs even the ones that are very talented in the game of tennis with no direction from the Nigeria Tennis Federation, or the State or the local government derailed while growing.
“”What i want to do is to involve them in sports as much as possible and to give them the right direction and a plan for their future.
Quadri a former head Coach of Emirates Tennis Academy in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), hinted that the first 3 days of the tennis programme would be a clinic while the remaining four days would be a tournament where the technical crew would fish-out the talented players that the Foundation would follow-up to better their tennis career for the future.
The Fusion Tennis Foundation Summer Clinic and tournament will end on August 15 at the Lagos Lawn Tennis Club, Onikan, Lagos.
