The ProvidusUnity Bank, which recently won the fastest growing bank award, has given tennis in Nigeria a big boost with an end of year Masters that will feature the top eight players, men and women, based on their performance through the year.
The tournament is fashioned after the end of year ATP Masters and the WTA Finals but combines the Nigerian version into one tournament with the champions expected to win over One million naira in prize money and other benefits.
Godwin Kienka, director of the International Tennis Academy which has been saddled with the responsibility to organize the tournament, said the Masters tournament will greatly raise the level of tennis in Nigeria as the senior players will train seriously from the beginning of the year to qualify for the year-end Masters. We would treat the players like royalty and like the super stars they are.
” In addition,” Kienka continued, “the tournament will attract good spectatorship now that the Nigerian sports community knows that the standard of the game in the country is pretty high as evidenced in the performance of our Davis Cup team against Uzbekistan.
“The Performance of our girls who progressed from the Billie Jean Cup African Zonals in Botswana will be great fun to watch at the Masters.
The ProvidusUnity Bank Masters is planned for December, immediately after the Dala Hard Cup Championships in Kano, the last tournament on the Nigeria Tennis Federation calendar scheduled for the last week of November.