Nigerian junior tennis players are wary of the bleak future that awaits them when they take the plunge into the professional circuit, which has not been rosy for their predecessors.

In the last two decades, Nigerian tennis has been on a free-fall, largely due to poor funding, scanty competitions, poor coaching and dwindling sponsorships for players to tour.

7-year-old Iye Onoja doing her thing

Since the golden era of Nduka Odizor and Tony Mmoh, the sun is yet to shine on Nigerian tennis, making the sports an endangered specie, which in turn has made the players to lose hope of any revival.

At the 2014 Chevron Tennis Junior Masters, which held weekend at the Lagos Lawn Tennis Club, Onikan, the excitement of the champion, Emmanuel Idoko, who defeated Niyi Olatunji in straight sets of 6-0, 6-4, was frozen out by the fear of the unknown.

Rather than bask in the euphoria of his conquest, Idoko, who turns 18 this year and is therefore ineligible to feature in next year’s tournament and subsequent junior competitions told Sports Vanguard that he was wary of the fate that awaits him in the professional cadre.

Speaking on the sidelines of the Lord Rumens Centre Court, Idoko said that his fear stemmed from the fact that no Nigerian tennis player has profited from playing the game in the last two decades.

Regretting the reality of leaving the protected and cocoon shell of the Chevron Tennis Clinic for the deep, dark, blue sea, Idoko said that he was devising an home-grown means to escape the banana peel that has fallen the likes of Sunday Maku, Abdulmumuni Babalola, Jonathan Igbinovia, Candy Idoko, Shehu Lawal and a host of other celebrated local stars.

“I am happy that I won the 2014 Chevron Junior Masters but somehow unhappy that this will be my last tournament in the junior category.

“It is ironical that I am sad when I am supposed to be happy but you can’t blame me for feeling this way because the future of players in the professional cadre is bleak. I do not want to end up like my senior counterparts and will be going to beg anybody who I think can help me to make a career out of this game”, said Idoko.

Also speaking, the losing finalist, Niyi Olatunji said that if he had his way, he would have remained in the junior cadre, to be catered for by Chevron, operators of the NNPC/Chevron joint venture, sponsors of the longest running and most successful junior tennis tournament in the country.

“I do not find the idea of moving from the junior to the senior level exciting because of the harsh times that await one in the professional circuit, where there are no tournaments and no sponsor to take one to tournaments.

“It would have been better to remain in the Chevron Academy but that can’t happen again as I have reached the age to leave the club. But I am going to look for any way to survive and avoid the mistakes made by my predecessors”, said Olatunji

National junior tennis coach, Mohamed Ubale said poor funding was undermining the transition of the junior players to the senior rank, urging stakeholders to forge a common ground to salvage the situation.

“It is so sad that after all the good efforts by Chevron

to groom these players into continental beaters that they suddenly have nothing to bank on when they turn professional. We must look for ways to ensure that there is continuity so that these teens can continue to flourish until they hit the Grand Slam stage”, Ubale told Sports Vanguard.