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Nigeria Needs Home Grown Tennis Solution – Segun Aluko
Nigeria needs a system through which young tennis talents are encouraged to grow within the shores of the country instead of trooping abroad in search of greener pastures, Sports247 reports.
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This charge was given by the president of Nigeria Tennis Players’ Parents Association, Mr Segun Aluko, who stressed that looking for talents based abroad is not a proper approach to developing the racquet sport for the country.
Aluko added in an exclusive interview with Sports247: “We have a lot of players based in America, especially in colleges; but the most important thing is how do we develop a home-grown tennis solution.
“To play tennis in Europe and America costs an arm and a leg … it’s extremely expensive; yet there’s no guarantee that the players would even be successful.
“So, we need to have a system whereby we can build players in Nigeria, to at least play Futures and Challengers tournaments before we then raise them to the foreign mat.”
Aluko reckoned further that Nigerian players have shown in recent years that they have what it takes to seek top marks internationally, especially with the recent victory over Uzbekistan in the Davis Cup qualifiers played in Lagos.
He, however, warned that the country’s next outing will be tougher, as the Davis Cup team is scheduled to play away to Morocco in September, which would surely be a tricky outing for the ambitious visitors.
“It’s actually not easy to have players out there, but we are not doing badly. We are not there yet, where we had top players five, seven years ago, but there’s still a lot of room for improvement.
“Our next challenge in the Davis Cup will be Morocco, which is a very emotional set-up. They will do everything possible to ensure we don’t win. But, win or lose, I will still give our boys a lot of kudos.
“Considering how our boys defeated Uzbekistan, Morocco should not be a big deal, but it won’t be easy. We saw what they did in football to Nigeria and other countries at the Nations Cup.
“They are always very desperate to win; but we should see it as an opportunity for us to further develop our tennis and our system.
“Let’s prepare the boys properly to play against Morocco. They may not be lucky enough to win, since they will be playing away, but I know they will give a very good account of themselves,” Aluko enthused.
He concluded by pointing out that the Davis Cup adventure will further reveal the need for Nigeria to develop home-grown talent, who can be called upon at short notice to step out and lift the country’s flag very high at every point in time.
Aluko submitted, “This will help us to further see the reason why we must develop tennis here at home. We are trying, but we need to do better.
“For us to beat Uzbekistan, who are ranked around 45 in the world, and they have a player who defeated (Novak) Djokovic in the Australia Open singles, shows that there is something good about tennis in Nigeria.
“We just need to have the right investment, the right focus and the right concentration. We have a lot of talent, and our players are doing really well; but we have a lot of work to do.
“We have to put the right system in place and get a proper structure for the game in Nigeria, so that we can have a good chance in the world of tennis.”
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