Kaduna – The CBN Future Team on Saturday in Kaduna lost to visiting Team FCT at the Murtala Square Tennis Courts in the ongoing NCC Tennis League.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the league was launched in Lagos in May.
In the opening match of the singles games, Michael Michael of CBN Future Team lost to Emmanuel Paul of Team FCT 6-4.
Emmanuel Sunday of Team FCT also beat Emmanuel Idoko of CBN Future Team 7-6.
In the doubles game, CBN Future Team which featured Martins Agbamu and Emmanuel Idoko lost 1-3 to Team FCT of Mohammed Mohammed and Emmanuel Sunday in the three-set game.
Speaking shortly after the matches, Paul said he had trained hard to win his match.
“I had lost the last three matches I played, and I wanted a win in Kaduna. So, I decided to train hard to beat my opponent.
“With this victory, I will like to train hard so that I can travel out to improve my performance in the game of tennis,’’ he said.
On his part, Michael said he was trying to recover from his injury and keep fit in order to be able to face other opponents.
“I am not happy that I lost my game, even though I have been trying to recover from injury and to keep fit so that I will continue my games properly,’’ he said.
In the female category, Marylove Edwards of CBN Future Team beat Blessing Samuel 6-2.
Also speaking after the games, Reuben Mouka, NCC’s Head of Public Relations, said the organisation had just started sponsoring the league version of tennis this year and hoped to sustain it.
“The NCC Tennis League is aimed at giving cities and states the opportunity to host top-flight tennis.
“Why we decided to sponsor tennis is that, after football and in terms of popularity in Nigeria, the next top game is tennis, which we believe touches the heart of sport.
“We are introducing the tennis league because we want to galvanise the sport and be able to take tennis to all parts of Nigeria.
“For now, we are satisfied and we have derived a lot of value from the
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,’’ he said.
NAN reports that the league has a prize money of N11 million on offer, with the winning team taking home N5 million and the runners-up N3 million.(NAN)
