The Nigeria Tennis Federation on Monday named a six-man team for the 2016 ITF World Junior Davis Cup and World Team Tennis Junior Championships holding from June 3 to 10 in Tunis, Tunisia.
The trio of Christopher Itodo, Christopher Bulus and South Africa-based Emmanuel Mordi will play in the Junior Davis Cup (U-16), while Michael Osewa, Saminu Abubakar and Musa Sani will feature in the World Team Junior Tennis Championship (U-14).
National junior tennis head coach, Mohammed Ubale, disclosed that the players, who have been in close camping in Abuja for some weeks, justified their selection by dominating the junior Central Bank of Nigeria Tennis Championship concluded last weekend in Kaduna.
Nigeria will be making its debut in the Junior Davis Cup qualifiers and last featured in the World Team Championships qualifiers in 2012.
Ubale believes the chances of clinching tickets for the tournaments, scheduled to hold respectively in Hungary and the Czech Republic later in the year, is bright.
“We are fully prepared for the challenges in Tunisia based on what happened at the CBN Juniors in Kaduna where the finals of the 18&under was played by Itodo and Bulus and as well as the 16&under, which featured Osewa and Abubakar in the final. We plan to arrive early so that we can settle down and acclimatize.”
Ubale said the players were stepped up at the CBN tourney to aid their development.
Nigeria was listed for the championship due to the country’s impressive performance at the last African Junior Championship in Pretoria, South Africa
The team is scheduled to depart Abuja 2am on Wednesday aboard Moroccan Air to connect another flight to Tunis where Mordi, 15, who will be making his Nigeria debut, will join the rest of the team same day from South Africa.