Alhaji Adewale Isa memorial open junior tennis championship holds August 1
By Ifeanyi Eduzor
Arrangement has been concluded for the 3rd edition of the annual Alhaji Mustapha Adewale Isa national open junior championship which will serve off from August 1-6, 2022 at the tennis court of the National Stadium, Surulere, Lagos.
Disclosing this to the media, daughter of the the late tennis coach, Mrs. Yinka Isa Adegun explained that the tournament is being put in place by the family to Immortalize their late father who devoted his life time to grassroots tennis development.
According to her, the late coach started his tennis career in the 1960’s with the Nigerian Railways before becoming a coach which took him to Lagos, Kaduna and Katsina States where he retired in 2002 as Assistant Director of Sports.
“This tournament is a continuation of a tradition started by his children to immortalize his legacy of developing tennis players in the cointry.
“Our late father was a lover of tennis who devoted all his life to the game and produced many national and international players such as; tennis Olympians, Yakubu Sulieman and Sadiq Abdullahi, the current national junior coach, Ubale Mohammed and his son Nurudeen Isa, the 2000 Nigerian Master’s champion.
” As the head coach of Kaduna State, he got a scholarship to Beaconsfield School of Lawn Tennis in the United Kingdom in 1975. He later became the chief referee of the international tennis tournament , Kaduna Clay Court for many years, holds the record as the first and only person as at 2022, to attend the Olympic Games as a coach from Nigeria as well as Chief referee of the prestigious Dala Hard Court Tennis Tournament in Kano from inception until his retirement in 2002 after which the position was taken over by his daughter, Arinola Isa who is now a line judge and still currently serves as international line judge in the tennis Majors across the globe.
Speaking at the event, national junior coach, Ubale Mohammed while posthumously commending the late coach for his numerous contributions to grassroots tennis development in the country, said the tournament is for male and female players aged 11-16 while the main draws will consist of 32 players in each category.
He further explained that the officials will be relying on the information in the players passport to ascertain their real ages even as he announced that the tournament will be used to select junior players that will be invited to camp to represent the country at the 14 and under tournament.
Another daughter of late Alhaji Isa Arinola explained that there will be level playing ground for all registered players positing that they will accommodate everybody even if it means playing a round robin before the main draws.
Winners of the tournament will go home with tennis equipment.
