Nigeria secured qualification for the African Junior Tennis Championship slated for September in Casablanca, Morocco as the 1st ITF/CAT West and Central African Teams Championships ended yesterday in Lagos.
The Nigerian girls’ team which has Iye Onoja, Oiza Yakubu and Serena Teluwo finished second after losing 2-1 to Benin in Thursday’s game and it was enough to see them clinch the ticket alongside their conquerors, for the event in Morocco at the expense of Ghana.
It was, however, a different story for the Nigerian boys’ team featuring Gabriel Inyang, David Ekpeyong and Fortune Joseph as they lost 3-0 to Togo to miss out of the train to the North African country. Ghana finished top of the boys’ standing with Togo ending as runners up.
The tournament featured four countries and was rounded off earlier than schedule owing to few numbers of participating nations which led to the change of format.
Nigeria’s coach, Mohammed Ubale expressed satisfaction over the performance of the Nigerian teams despite failing to meet the target of securing qualification of both teams.
Ubale said, “Our goal was to get the tickets in both categories but we could not. It’s not that I’m disappointed because it’s a developmental programme rather, we are delighted that we showed great potential which points that the future of our tennis is bright. We equally had injury troubles particularly the one sustained by Reya Holmes, who had gone on preparation for the championship in London.”
