Tennis players to battle for N5.1m prize in Lagos

Ninety-six male and female young tennis players will converge on the Lagos Country Club, Ikeja for this year’s Rainoil Open Tennis tournament billed for between November 28 and December 8. A breakdown of the participants shows that 32 female and 64 male players will be fighting for honours in the week-long tournament.

Speaking with journalists at the Ikeja Country Club house in yesterday, Executive Director of Rainoil, Godfrey Ogbechie, who represented the Group Managing Director, said the company’s sponsorship of the annual tournament was a demonstration of their commitment to the development of tennis in the country.

“It is also our modest way of assisting in the discovery of talents who could become stars in the future,” she said.

According to Mrs. Ogbechie, Rainoil is “passionate about human development through education, health and sports. That is why we have been sponsoring tennis for about ten years now. We started with senior tennis, which was for recreational purposes but after realising that we needed to be involved in the development of future stars, we decided to start with the juniors.”

She acknowledged the company’s partnership with the Lagos Country Club and observed that it was working. “We are using the Lagos Country Club as a platform and collaborating with the Nigeria Tennis Federation to produce future stars and very soon we will begin to reap bountifully the fruits of our labour,” she said.

Ogbechie added that in line with international practices, the organisers have harmonised the prizes between the male and female winners and said N5.1 m was up for grabs.