Rainoil Open tournament ends November 17 in Lagos

The 2018 Rainoil Open Tennis Tournament will end on November 17 at the Tennis Section of Ikoyi Club 1938, the sponsor has revealed.

Speaking to The Guardian yesterday, Group Managing Director of Rainoil, Dr. Gabriel Ogbechie said the weeklong competition has featured 180 players, adding that it was made an open competition to draw more top quality players.

“The previous format of Tennis Masters was restrictive. It was meant for only the top eight male and top eight female players on the Nigeria Tennis Federation ranking. But since last year, we decided to open it up.

“This year we featured top 64 male players as well as the top 32 female players on the NTF ranking,” he said.

He revealed that the company was passionate about tennis, which is why they have been sponsoring the tournament for 10 years.

“As a person, I have played tennis since I was a child. I know that tennis is one game to encourage our young boys and girls to earn decent living for themselves.

“The top tennis players in the world like Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, Rafa Nadal have each earned over $100 million in the course of their careers. That is why we at Rainoil want to encourage our young ones to play the game.”