Nweke Chibueze from Imo State has emerged as overall winner of the U16 Category of the Christie South East Tennis Classics, concluded at the Standard Tennis Court, Dan Anyiam Stadium, Owerri, at the weekend, Silvernews.com.ng reports.
Chibueze defeated Stephen James from Anambra 6-4, 6-3 in the final to lift the trophy.
Onuegbu Chimobi and Samuel Ndem, both from imo state emerged winners in the U14 and U12 categories respectively.
Onuegbu Chimobi saw off Onuoha Prince from Enugu State 6-2,6-4 while Ndem Samuel out stroked his opponent 6-0, 6-1, to make it a clean sweep for Team Imo in a competition that featured 30 players from four states of the South East.
The young tennis players, who were excited at the opportunity to play in a competition like this, expressed their gratitude to the former Nigeria No.1 Tennis player Christie Agugbom for making the competition a reality and promised to work hard to achieve greater heights in the game.
Trophies were presented to winnersb byformer Nigeria International player and Coach James Anukam, who urged the players to work hard in order to excel in the game of tennis.
The President of Owerri Standard Tennis Development Club, Mr Okey Anyiam presented the U14 trophy to the winner and expressed his believe that the early exposure of the young players will assist them to face the task ahead.
The South East representative of the Nigeria Tennis Federation, Kingsley Uduh, representated by ENIC Secretary General Deacon Onyekwere Ugboaja expressed his support for the nation’s former no.1 women tennis player and shared her believe in grassroot development of tennis in the country.
He encouraged her to keep up the great work in this regard.
One of the major talking points of the three-day South East Tennis Classics is the high rating of the tennis classic by the Chief organizer,, Mr Charles Duruaku, who is also a Trustee of ENIC, who said he was impressed with the standard of tennis put on show by the young tennis players.
Chief Duruaku urged corporate organisations to organise more grassroot tournaments for tennis youngsters to stimulate their interest in the racket sport to enable them take more active part grassroot competitions.
“This will no doubt help in the discovery of more tennis players at the young age”.
He described the donor as “a tennis professional who understands the need to grow the next generation of tennis stars in the country”.
