Nigerian trio of Marylove Edward, Suleiman Ibrahim and Daniel Adeleye will Thursday depart Lagos for Casablanca, Morocco to feature in the 2016 ITF/CAT 12 & Under Talent Identification Programme holding from August 26 -September 4.
The players, according to the ITF, were selected based on their performances at the 2016 ITF/CAT West and Central Africa Tennis Championship which was held in January in Abuja.
While Ibrahim from the FCT and Adeleye from Ekiti battled in final of the boys’ 12 & under, which was won by the former, Edward impressed in the 14 & under losing to her compatriot, Oyinlomo Quadri having defeated US-based Camerounian Anna Lemongo in the semifinal.
This undoubtedly is a joyous moment for the Lagos-based 11-year-old Edward, who few weeks ago secured sponsorship from a private firm to see her develop and become a player that will feature regularly in WTA events across the world in the next five years.
Nigeria junior tennis head coach, Mohammed Ubale expressed confidence in the players to get selected for the ITF scholarship which comes as reward for the players that excel at the programme.
“The three players stand a very good chance of getting selected this is because I have seen them play in recent weeks and their form is very good,” Ubale said.
“Marylove was on top of her game going by her recent performances particularly at the NNPC Junior Tennis Championship recently in Lagos. The same goes for Daniel who was the winner of the 12 & under category of the same tournament. Ibrahim, on his part, has also underdone lots of training in the last two months because this is a great opportunity to aid their tennis career.”
Over 80 players from 25 countries will feature in the programme.
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