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| The Duke back in the Days. |
Nigeria’s most successful Tennis player, Nduka Odizor is set
to take the country’s Tennis to a greater hight with the establishment of the "
Duke" Odizor Tennis School in the country's capital,Abuja next year.
Odizor, who won a career singles and seven doubles titles,
said the idea of the project is to get children involved in Tennis.
“There has been so many complaints that government is doing
little or nothing but we keep getting it wrong because government is about people
and if I keep complaining then I’m part
of the problem. We have to start something in order to convince others to join
us and that is what I’m doing with Mr Edward Tombim in Abuja,” stated Odizor
nicknamed the Duke.
Odizor, who is now a property developer and financier, revealed
that the project is currently being test-run with 10 kids under Babatunde Abe,
a US-trained coach in Abuja. The kids are given a meal daily and two meals on
Saturdays and Sundays. In addition, the kids get weekly allowances.
“The school is not just about tennis but a school with
normal primary and secondary school curricular where five international
languages namely English, French, Chinese, Spanish and Swahili will be taught
because the truth is that 90% of the kids will never succeed in tennis but if
they are educated and also play tennis, they would have acquired skills that
will help them in future,” Odizor, who reached his highest ATP singles of World
No. 52 in June 1984 said.
Odizor last weekend donated about 50 tennis shoes, 30
rackets and clothes for kids towards the running of a monthly junior tennis
tournament in Abuja which has been running for about three years.
He added: “I was just an ordinary Ball boy at the Lagos Lawn
Tennis Club some 50 years ago before I was given the chance to play tennis and
I see what I’m doing as a payback for that life-transforming gesture.”
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