•Winners to get N7m
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has earmarked N17 million as prize money for this year’s NCC Tennis League with the over all winners guaranteed N7 million.

Unveiling details of this year’s event at the Ikoyi Club, Lagos, NCC’s Executive Vice President, Prof. Umar Danbatta, said the Commission was happy with the profile, organisation and impact of the event, which has achieved all the objectives it was designed to achieve.  

“The Tennis League is introducing 45 weeks of tennis to the Nigerian tennis calendar up from 32 last year and is taking topflight tennis to more cities across the country. The number of teams has also risen from eight to 10 this year,” Danbatta, who was represented by NCC’s Director of Special Duties, Mrs. Iyabo Sholanke, said.

Sports Minister, Solomon Dalung, who was among the dignitaries at the event, commended the club for the outstanding facility and their maintenance level and implored the club to play a bigger role in the development of sports in the country.

The Minister extoled the NCC for sponsoring such a major historic tennis event, which has the potential of producing top professional tennis players in the near future. He added: “What I have seen here today has convinced me that the private sector has to lead the sports development process in Nigeria.”The minister later participated in the ballot for the placement of the teams into the Blue and White round robin groups.

The Blue Group comprises Team Tombim of Abuja, Team Offikwu of Kaduna, Team Lead Way of Lagos, Team Anambra of Onitsha and Team Goshen from Ilorin, while the White Group is made up of Civil Defence (Kaduna), Team FCT (Abuja), Team Kalotari (Port Harcourt), Team Hope (Asaba/Warri) and Team CBN Futures of Lagos.