The technical director of Nigeria Tennis Federation (NTF), Saidu Musa has given the country a pass mark for its efforts towards reviving the racquet sport in recent years.
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Musa told Sports247 that Team Nigeria’s recent victory over Uzbekistan in Lagos and the 2026 ITF J30 World Tennis Tour in Abuja are two clear examples of the new lease of life the sport is getting in the country.
Although he admitted that a lot of work still has to be done for the growth of Nigerian tennis, Musa further pointed out that the presence of foreign players for the J30 Tour in Abuja is a big achievement.
He noted, “For this year’s tournament, we have about 15 countries playing in the games. We gave players from the USA, Taiwan, Hong Kong, China, Ghana and Switzerland, playing alongside Nigerian representatives.”
The NTF’s technical buff then took a look at what he referred to as various challenges confronting the federation, while trying to move tennis forward in Nigeria, top of which he said are inadequate funding and lack of sponsors.
He added, “Tennis is an expensive game, and it takes a lot of commitment to be involved. It also involves a lot of sponsorship.
“The federation’s officials are doing their best to get various forms of partnership, but we need more of such – particularly corporate sponsorship.
“To get quality players to feature at the top level of tennis, we need them to go beyond the shores of the country and feature in major competitions.”
Musa concluded with details of the process and steps required for Nigerian players to be rated high on the global scale, as it used to be in the days of Nduka Odizor et al.
“For our players to get ranking points, apart from them playing in entry-level tournaments, they must feature in top events like M15 and M25 for the males, while the females have to play in Women 35, 50 and 100 before they graduate to ATP level.
“All these are part of what tell in the quality of players the country has. All the sane, as it is presently in Nigeria, regarding all these levels, I think we are not doing badly,” Musa affirmed.
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