Nigeria’s wheelchair tennis team will today begin their quest for glory at the 2012 BNP Paribas World Team Cup in Antalya, Turkey.
The duo of Alex Adewale and Jude Uwaize in company of coach Frank Tarmena left for Accra, Ghana on Sunday morning and were scheduled to arrive Turkey in the early hours of the Monday having failed to meet their original travel plan from Lagos on Saturday.
“The Turkish Embassy (in Abuja) did not issue visas to the team until very late on Friday and that really affected the travelling arrangement as they could not secure seats for them in the Turkish Airline that left Lagos on Saturday and that is why we decided they should head to Ghana on Sunday so as to get there on time as they can only leave for Turkey from Nigeria on Monday evening by the time which the competition would have started, Nigeria Tennis Federation President Engr. Sani Ndanusa said as he urged the team to improve on their previous outings in order to justify its ratings by the International Tennis Federation as one of the most-improved countries in the game.
In their debut outing, Nigeria caused one of the biggest upsets in the last edition held in South Korea, beating Switzerland –one of the favorites team- in their opening game.
A total of 52 teams from 28 countries are contesting five events: men’s World Group (12 nations), men’s World Group 2 (12 nations), women’s World Group (12 nations), quad event (8 teams) and junior event (8 teams).
The Netherlands are defending its women’s and junior titles, while France is the defending men’s champion and Israel the defending quad champions.
