A former junior tennis coach, Suleiman Mohammed, has called on the Nigeria Tennis Federation to make available more developmental tournaments that would help in discovering hidden talents.
The Germany-based coach who assisted Ubale Mohammed during the 2017 Junior Davis Cup in Egypt told Trust Sports that Nigeria is blessed with abundant talents in tennis who need more competitions to excel.
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The former Kaduna State tennis coach said if not for youth programmes, it wouldn’t have been possible for the country to discover and develop players like Christopher Bulus, Christopher Itodo and Emmanuel Mordi who performed very well in the 2017 Junior Davis Cup.
Mohammed, therefore, said even as the present leadership of the tennis federation is trying in the area of junior tournaments, it should strive harder because what is on ground presently is not enough to carter for the talents available in the country.
He said “Based on my experience as a former tennis player and coach in Nigeria, I want to say that we are not doing enough in the area of youth development.
“We need more developmental tournaments, if we are to unearth talents for development. Having worked as an assistant coach in the junior national team, I can say talents abound in tennis in the country.
“I am, therefore, calling on the tennis federation to do more in the area of youth tennis development. There must be deliberate efforts to discover talents early. Catch them young programmes would suffice in this regard,” he said.
Mohammed also called for refresher courses for junior tennis players saying they must be in tune with changing trends in the sport, if they are to effectively deploy the much needed technical knowledge in raising future stars.