Tennis: Nigerian Players In Top Gear For Africa Juniors Qualifiers, says Ubale

*An intern

 National Junior Tennis coach Mohammed Ubale has said that the recently held Maryam Babangida Memorial Championship in Minna Niger State was a perfect ground that set the tone for the country’s preparations for Confederation of African Tennis African Junior Championship Zonal Qualifier scheduled to take place in Abuja January 13 to 18.

The Minna event not only helped players tune up but also produced new set of plsyers, as Ubale stated. The held Maryam Babangida Memorial Championship was constituted largely of  by players who are U-12 and14 boys and girls.

With mostly winners of the championships constituting Nigeria’s team for Africa, Ubale was hopeful of the country making a good outing, believing that the players would maintain due form. “We are set to go and all the players are in top shape. The tournament in Minna has proved to be timely because it served as part of the preparation for the African qualifiers we are going into and I’m convinced we will have a very good outing next week when the show begins,” he said. The Nigerian camp has names like Godsgift Timipre, Fortune Aniso Oluwabunmi Are.

NTF has stepped up preparations for the qualifiers.

In the Minna events, Joy Sunday of the FCT and Chidera Anozie of Niger were the winners of the Girls' and Boys'  & Under 12 having beaten Timipre Maxwell of Rivers and  Musa Mohammed of Katsina respectively.