The Acting Director, corporate communications department of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Mr. Isaac Okorafor has said that CBN’s continuous sponsorship of the Senior Tennis is in line with their resolve to continue to promote and develop the game of tennis in the country just as they are doing in the CBN Junior Tennis circuit.
Over 300 Tennis players drawn across the country are featuring at the 39th Edition of the annual Central Bank of Nigeria Senior Tennis Tournament that served off in Lagos on Thursday at the tennis courts of the National Stadium, Surulere, Lagos.
The championship will end June 3,
Okorafor said the sum of N11,248,000.00 (Eleven Million, Two Hundred and Forty Eight Thousand Naira) is the prize money for winners in both men and women categories as well as the wheelchair division
He explained that winners of both the men and women singles categories would smile home with N700,000 each while the runners up in both categories will get N500,000.00 each.
Action has already begun in men’s singles round of 64 with four wild cards already given and women’s singles round of 32 where only two wild cards were allocated.
Ironically, new champions must emerge this year as both the men’s singles and women’s singles defending champions Moses Michael who has travelled to the United States of America and Russian based Melissa Ifidzhen who is having her examinations will not be taking part in the exercise.
Meanwhile, the secretary general of the Nigerian Tennis Federation, Mariam Akande has pleaded with the players to ensure that they observe the general rules of the game, knowing that the CBN is the biggest Tennis Tournament in the country.a
Source : SunOnline