Michael, Agugbom Are Top Seed as Dala Hard Court Serves off

After two rounds of qualifying matches, the main draw of the 2016 Dala Hard Court Tennis Championship serves off today in Kano with Moses Michael and Christy Agugbom as the top seeds for the men’s and women’s singles.
Tournament Secretary, Yusuf Datti, hinted at the weekend that no fewer than 128 players featured in the men’s preliminary while about 60 ladies slugged it out for places in the women’s final chart.
The men’s main draw will be filled by 32 players of which will be the top 20 in the Nigeria Tennis Federation (NTF) rankings, eight qualifiers as well as four wild card entrants while the top ten ranked players, four qualifiers and two wild cards beneficiaries will occupy the women’s main draw chart.
It means the likes of Moses and Sylvester Emmanuel who battled for the CBN Open in Lagos in June as well as Thomas Otu, Joseph Imeh, Shehu Lawal, Abdulmumuni Babalola, Clifford Enosoregbe, Nonso Madueke, among others, will be in the hunt for the top prize in the men’s singles just as Ronke Akingbade, Osariemen Airhuwunde, Aanu Aiyegbusi, Blessing Samuel will challenge the dominance of Agugbom and Adegoke, who have shared the last three women’s singles titles between them.
“It’s been a very hectic schedule due to the large number of entries. We have decided that the qualifiers on Sunday be played on short set so that we can meet up for the main draw which will start on Monday,” Datti said.
The Dala Hard Court has, on record, the highest winners prize in Nigerian tennis when it gave out N1 million as the men’s singles champion to Sylvester Emmanuel in 2014.

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