The second edition of all females tournaments tagged ‘Lagos Ladies Tennis Open’ has been held at the FAAN tennis club ground.
Speaking with reporters at the FAAN tennis club over the weekend, organiser of the competition Engr. Ada Lilian Uzodiagu, said about ten clubs featured in this second edition saying it was a good one.
Uzodiagu explained that, last year there were about 19 players but 24 were registered but this years edition had 20 players with 24 registered.
“So we have reached out to more persons and have covered more areas, because I am the founder, I rely on my personal resources, family, friends, so I have been able to sustain it. So, it is still like a charity thing for me, out of my own free will”.
Uzodiagu lamented the poor number of females in the tennis game which motivated her to go into the competition to improve the game of tennis as women sports.
“The first edition of the Lagos ladies was held last year June 2022 and it was as a result of the low number of females in the game of tennis, so I am trying to improve this aspect of women sports, it has been an amazing time and all the ladies are excited so we hope to have a good turnout”.
She appealed to the government to go back to the syllabus of students, give more rooms and more time in sporting activities.
Uzodiagu said provision was made for prizes in the second edition of the tennis competition and called for collaboration for a bigger tournament.
She called for collaboration to have a bigger venue and better welfare for the players.
“So government would do a lot of work if they partner with others like we have FAAN and other clubs around, if they can collaborate this types of activities would pick up the visibility of the sports”.
Also speaking the captain of Ogudu Tennis Club, Toyin Ewete, said players complied with the rules of the officials noting that, from the first tournament there were improvement from the players as they trained well in readiness for the second tournament with a variety of six to seven clubs.
“I think we need to maintain this level in terms of age and encourage other people to start the game, the game is more like an eye opener, more focus from the country is on the men but women are coming all out to show their passion for the game”.
