Nigeria’s tennis great, Nduka Odizor, will be a special guest at the semifinals of the NCC Tennis League Cup between Team Tombim and Team FCT at the Enugu Sports Club on Saturday and Sunday, organisers have said.
Odizor, nicknamed the Duke by tennis writers in England after he beat eighth seed Argentina’s Guillermo Vilas at the 1983 Wimbledon, said he was very happy to support the NCC Tennis league because “it is the best thing to happen to Nigerian tennis, if not Nigerian sports as a whole”.
Enugu State Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi is expected on the occasion.
Odizor, who achieved the highest ranking of 52nd in the world, played in all the Grand Slams with his best performances coming at the 1983 Wimbledon, where he reached the fourth round, and the 1985 Australian Open where he reached the third round.
He is also expected to be in Abuja for the second semifinals between Team Civil Defence and Team Offikwu on December 10 and 11, where the sports minister Solomon Dalung is expected to be the special guest of honour.
The first semifinal in Enugu is expected to be keenly contested as defending champions Tombim, with national champion Moses Michael, Christian Paul and Sarah Adegoke, facing Team FCT. Former national number one Thomas Otu, who appears to have regained the form that saw him win the CBN Senior championship in 2015, and Sunday Emmanuel, who was a semifinalist in the men’s singles event of the Dala Hard Court tennis, will represent Team FCT.
“Enugu will be hosting the best of Nigerian tennis this weekend and we hope it will go some way in reviving tennis in that part of the country, which in the past produced great players like Patrick Obi, Esther Onyekwelu, Cecilia Nnadozie, Tony Mmoh, Nnamdi Ehirim and Kyrian Nwokedi,” the International Tennis Academy Director Godwin Kienka said.
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