Ifedayo Akindoju, president of the Nigeria Tennis Federation (NTF), says the country needs more tennis academies to excel in the sport.

Mr Akindoju said Thursday in Abuja that the establishment of academies was a major reason other countries do better than Nigeria in tennis.

Mr Akindoju said, “One thing that all other countries that progress tremendously in tennis have, and that we don’t have are the academies, and that is where the focus should be.

“We are trying hard to put that in place, but of course, as a federation, we cannot finance such projects. We have been communicating and collaborating with private entities and corporate bodies to take it as a project.”

He explained that the model “we have is what we call the tennis school.”

The NTF president added, “So, imagine if we have a school where all the students play tennis. It may be a regular school that has tennis facilities and has the game added to its curriculum, such that it plays tennis while attending school.

“In doing that, we discover talents and people with extra skills, later upgrade them to high-performance centres and train especially further to see them compete with their peers across the world.”

Mr Akindoju, elected vice president of Confederation of African Tennis (CAT) Zone 2 in 2023, said one of his requests to the continental body was to help build a tennis academy to improve the game in the country further.

(NAN)