By John EGBOKHAN
Davis Cup top seed, Abdulmumuni Babalola has said that it was unfortunate that he is still the highest ranked tennis player in the country.

Abdulmumuni Babalola

11 years ago, Babalola, a left-handed serve and volley player, shot into tennis limelight when he beat Sunday Maku in the  men’s singles final of the Central Bank Tennis Open held at the National Stadium, Lagos.

That victory ended Maku’s reign at the top of the tennis ranking and 11 years on from that historic feat, Babalola is still holding on to that top spot, a situation that leaves him feeling bitter and pained at the same time.

“I am not happy that I am still the number one tennis player in Nigeria”, Babalola began, when Sports Vanguard approached him for an interview, on the sidelines of the ongoing 35th CBN Open in Lagos, which ends tomorrow.

He wishes that one of the top players can stop him from winning another CBN men’s singles crown, even as he feels that he is on top of his game.

“If anybody believes in himself, I would be stopped. There are a lot of good players who can win the competition but I am on top of my game. One of the players who can stop me is Nonso. He is a very good player. There is Henry Atsaye, there is Clifford Enosoregbe, and the likes of Shehu Lawal cannot be written off”, said Babalola, who rated as low the standard of the competition.

“I have seen nothing. Since the last Dala Hard Court in Kano, we have not played any tournament. The standard of tennis in Nigeria is going down. And yet people will be expecting miracles from us. There is no miracle we can perform  without working towards it. The standard is going down”, said the Ibadan native.

On how the problems can be addressed, Babalola, who now travels to the United Kingdom to play club tournaments, which fetches him some much-needed money, said that “the issue is that we have been talking about it for the past 15 years on the need for the Nigeria Tennis Federation to be reshuffled. We need the right people there.

“I admit that we do not have righteous men but we continue to pray to God to give us the right person to fill the positions in the NTF. We are not telling them to help the game with an 100% effort. If they can give as little as 10%, we would appreciate their efforts”, said Babalola, who said player cannot manufacture results in the absence of sponsorship and regular tournaments.

“When there is no sponsorship for players, there is nothing that any player can do. It is only someone like me and Shehu Lawal, who can think beyond the game because they believe that if there are no sponsors that I should do one or two things that would get me into trouble but I am too big for such.

“‘It is so sad because we have a lot of talented junior players who do not have any hope of going far playing tennis. It is painful to everybody and as the Nigerian number one, its even more painful because if you are still talking about Nigerian tennis today and you mention Babalola and people who heard the name in 2002, get to know that Babalola is still the number one player, then there is something wrong in our tennis. It is unfortunate”, added Babalola.