THE historic NCC Tennis League will be launched May 24 at the Lagos Lawn Tennis Club with an exhibition challenge between players based in the North and those in the South.

A release from the International Tennis Academy, organisers of the event, said the launch starts at 2pm and will also feature traditional dances and skill displays from other sports.

“The NCC Tennis League is truly worth celebrating and we plan to use the launch to promote unity through sports. We also hope that it will be the final major sporting event for outgoing officials at the Federal and State levels who should use the occasion to say their sporting good byes.” Godwin Kienka, director of the ITA, said.

Eight teams are competing for the NCC Tennis Cup which is offering a star prize of five million naira to the winning team. The runner-up and third place teams are getting three and two million naira respectively while the fourth gets a million. The league is also introducing 30 weeks of tennis in eight different locations to the Nigerian tennis calendar.

“It’s a huge break for Nigerian tennis players who are looking to go professional,” explained Kienka who worked with the International Tennis Federation and the ATP in the past, “because they get to train and play in squads and automatically attract sponsorship from team owners.”

The eight teams are playing in two groups – the Blue and White. The White Group

comprises Team Ogun based in Abeokuta, CBN Futures Team in Kaduna, Kalotari from Port Harcourt and Team FCT in Abuja. The Blue Group has the Civil Defence with Owerri as base, Tombim of Abuja, Team Delta from Asaba and Team Anambra based in Onitsha.

The first round robin ties are expected to kick off the weekend of May 29 to May 31. In the Blue Group, Team Anambra will host Civil Defence at the Onitsha Sports Club while Team Delta will host Tombim in Asaba. The White Group will showcase Kalotari versus Team FCT in Abuja and Team Ogun squaring up against the CBN Futures Team in Abeokuta. All venues will be manned by a supervisor and an ITF certified white badge umpire.