Final Batch Of Team Nigeria For African Juniors Set To Depart For South Africa

Coach Ubale Mohammed.

After a twenty day training camp in Abuja,a seven man Team Nigeria comprising six players and a coach are scheduled to travel to South Africa Saturday ahead of for the 2016 International Tennis Federation and /Confederation of African Tennis African (ITF/CAT) Junior Championships which holds from March 9^th -18^th in Pretoria, South Africa.  

The players that will be competing for honours on behalf of Nigeria at the tournament which will feature about 160 players from over 30 African countries are Christopher Bulus, Christopher Itodo (boys 16&under), Gabriel Friday, Michael Osewa (boys 14&under), Angel McLeod (girls 16&under) and Marylove Edwards (girls 14&under). Edwards, 11, made her international debut at the qualifiers in Abuja where she won a silver in the singles and gold medal in the doubles.

The six players have been perfecting their acts at the National Tennis Centre, Abuja under the supervision of coach Mohammed Ubale.

 

They will be joining their compatriots Oyinlomo Barakat Quadri  and Adetayo Adetunji who are already in Pretoria. Quadri, at the ITF High Performance Centre in Casabalanca, Morocco.

Ubale said the team changed its plan to travel next week Monday in order to acclimatize due to the high altitude of the venue.

 

“All things being equal, we will be opening another camp in Pretoria immediately on our arrival as the Nigeria Tennis Federation has already worked that out weeks before now.

“We don’t want to take chances because the altitude in Pretoria is much different to what we are used to here. It’s the same reason that the ITF team sets up a camp which will be for like five days so that they can master the chance in atmosphere,” Ubale stated.

Nigeria are the champions of the regional qualifiers held in Abuja in January and will be leading 10 other countries from the West and Central African region to the championship which will hold at the University of Pretoria, Tuks.