The 3rd Annual NNPC/SNEPCo Junior Tennis championships began on Tuesday at the Lagos Lawn Tennis Club (LLTC), Onikan with no fewer than 150 players participating.
The Coordinator, Godwin Keinka, said at the venue that the competition had five categories – the U-10, U-12, U- 14, U-16 and U-18.
“What we have achieved so far in the three years of this competition is beyond our expectations, considering the increasing number of turn-out players yearly.
“We still aim at attracting more players, so as to identify the good ones. We have attracted a large turn-out of players by offering them free hotel accommodation.
“Recently, this is the only tournament that has been completely open for participants,’’ he said.
According to Kienka, the competition is also structured to allow the junior players to progress into the senior category.
“We have a structure that captures the best juniors from an early age to usher them into the senior category.
“We have records of some of the players, who came through this same channel and are currently pulling their weight in the senior category.
“One of them is Michael Michael, the 2014 champion of the Lagos Governor’s Cup,” he said.
Kienka, the Director, International Tennis Academy (ITA), said his academy and SNEPCo were determined to continue to improve on the competition.
“We are determined to go a step further yearly for improvements of players because we are thinking of re-equipping a lot more of players.”
He assured that with the high level of sponsorship from SNEPCo, the players would have all they need to train from now to the next tournament.
