WHEELCHAIR TENNIS

Nigeria’s growing reputation in global wheelchair tennis has suffered a huge dent following the country’s withdrawal from the BNP Paribas World Team Cup which served off Monday at the Nieuwe Sloot Tennis Centre in Alphen, Netherlands. The World Team Cup is wheelchair tennis version of the Davis Cup and the Fed Cup.

Nigeria won the African qualifiers held in March in Kenya by beating Morocco and there was widespread optimism that the country could grab a promotion to the World Group I following the rapid improvement of the game in the country which was highlighted by the nation’s participation at the Beijing 2008 Olympics and the 2012 Olympics in London which makes the development a major setback for the game in the country.

The triumph in Kenya was the third in a row for the country’s men team which makes them Africa’s top-ranked nation but the gap between them and their nearest rivals, Morocco will get closer at the end of the tournament due to their unexpected absence.

Nigeria’s place was occupied by Romania following Sunday evening’s draw which has Canada and Italy in Pool 4.

At the finals of the CBN championship which served as the last phase of preparations for the 31-nation tournament featuring 52 teams, some of the players had complained about lack of motivation but promised to make a mark in the tournament as a way of securing sponsorships and also getting more domestic tournaments.

Aside the CBN, the only regular tournament the players have is the New Era Tournament, bankrolled by the foundation of Senator Oluremi Tinubu but was last held in 2010.