17th July, 2012
Tennis players within the ages of 3 and 18 have something to cheer about in the coming holiday, as a clinic for children has been packaged for them by the Let’s Play Tennis Academy.
Disclosing this to Tennis Special at the National Stadium, Surulere, the organiser of the programme, one of Nigeria’s top players, Destiny Ford Da-Silva, said the aim of the clinic is to discover new talents for the country.
“It’s just a summer holiday tennis programme put together to teach the kids the rudiments of the game and to keep them off the streets” Da-Silva said.
Da-Silva, who has played professional tennis in Germany, lamented the dearth of tourney for players to exhibit their talent.
In his words: “When I was growing up, there used to be holiday programmes which Nestle Milo used to sponsor, nothing like that now. My belief is that these children should be given a platform to exhibit their talent in tennis. I was doing it for children in Europe, so I thought I could also do it here in my country,” he enthused.
On the issue of sponsorship, the Davis Cup team player stated that “we are hoping to get sponsorship from one or two companies but for now, we don’t have any sponsor. Since the clinic is for the young ones, I can still afford what we’ll need to organise this clinic. We hope to make it an annual event. My appeal is for sponsors. to identify with this programme.”
—Damilare Okunola