Excitement grips LLTC, as CBN junior tennis tourney serves off today

THE courts of the Lagos Lawn Tennis Club, Onikan, will witness some of the best youth matches in the country in recent times when the Central Bank of Nigeria Junior Tennis Championship serves off today.

The 2014 CBN Junior Tennis Championship is the ninth in the series sponsored sponsorship by the apex bank and managed by the International Tennis Academy (ITA).

According to the ITA director, Godwin Kienka, the tournament has gained its ground in unearthing the next generation of talented players, some of whom have gone to make an impression at the regional and continental level.

He explained that this edition of the competition would feature games from the Under-10 category to Under-16, adding that some of the players would also feature in the senior event, the CBN Open, which comes after the junior championship.

Also speaking at a press briefing in Lagos on the event, CBN’s Director, Corporate Communications Department, Ibrahim Muazu, stressed that the objectives of the tournament were to ensure that young talents were discovered early and nurtured to limelight while establishing a strong transition platform for the senior category

He added that the competition also strives to provide a structure that would allow junior players compete at a very early age and transit from the junior to senior category.

“We hope that more junior players take advantage of the CBN Junior Circuit,” said Muazu, who noted that before the commencement of the junior tournament Nigeria was ranked number five in West Africa, adding, “For the past two years, Nigeria has maintained the number one position in the boys category in West Africa.”