By Kester Omu
The 2017 edition of the annual Nigerian Communications Commission’s Lawn Tennis League will kick-off tomorrow at the National Stadium Surulere, Lagos.
The kick-off, which will last for three days will see three teams compete for the 12th spot in the main event. The three teams are Team Anambra (Onitsha), Team Oluyole (Ibadan) and Team Police College (Ikeja).
According to a statement issued by the NCC, the three teams dropped into the play-off event based on their collective team ranking.The Tennis League has a cap of 12 teams.
Meanwhile, the International Tennis Academy (ITA), NCC’s organising partners for the League has disclosed that the matches will be reduced to five matches to enable each tie to finish in one day. The matches to decide each tie are: two men’s singles, one ladies’ singles, one men’s doubles and one mixed doubles.
“We are expecting some very exciting matches as the teams are featuring some very good national and intermediate players,” a statement from the ITA said.
The NCC Tennis League is the first of its kind in Africa. This year, the League is offering consolidated prizes worth N23 million.
The main event will start next weekend with an opening match between star-studded Team Civil Defence featuring Abdulmumuni Babalola, Clifford Enosoregbe and Christie Agugbom; and newcomers Team Muller which has CBN Senior Championship finalist Joseph Imeh, Emma Idoko and Ronke Akingbade on their list.