Davis Cup heroes ready to rumble as Zenith Next Gen gets date

Some of the stars, who made Nigeria proud at the just-concluded Davis Cup promotional play-off, have been listed for the Zenith Bank Next Gen Masters, which serves on August 7.

Unveiling the programme for the championship on Tuesday,the International Tennis Academy (ITA) Director, Godwin Kienka, said that the Davis Cup heroes deserve commendation for making the country proud at the event held in Abuja.

He singled out emerging tennis star, Emmanuel Michael Akpan 17, who turned out to be Nigeria’s hero at the Group 3 playoffs, as one of the stars to watch at the Zenith Next Gen Masters.

Michael, who was one of the finalists in last year’s Zenith Bank Next Generation Masters, which held at the Ikoyi Club, got his chance when national champion, David Ekpeyong, was unavailable for selection, and was tapped ahead of former national champion, Winston Igbinovia, by Davis Cup Captain, Benson Isichei.

The lad justified the captain’s confidence in him by winning all his singles matches against top players from Namibia, Zimbabwe, Cote d’Ivoire, Benin Republic and Ghana to get Nigeria her promotion to Group 2.

“Michael’s performance shows that our talent identification and selection process for the Zenith Bank Next Generation Masters is topnotch. Not only Michael, Canice Abua, a finalist at the 2023 edition, was in the semifinals of the last two national tournaments while Khadijat Mohammed, who won the Girls’ singles went on to win the Dala Hard Court Womens Singles four months later.

“We are set for the 2024 edition which serves off at the Ikoyi Club from August 7 with the grand finale on August 11.
“On the sidelines of the Zenith Next Gen will be the FE & P Invitational Masters for boys and girls U-12 and U-14 to help us identify the best talent in that age group and establish a transition process.”

Some of the players invited for the Zenith Bank Next Gen Masters are Mubarak Ganiyu, Ikenna Okonkwo, Suleiman Ibrahim, Success Ogunjobi, Itoro Bassey and Logolay Holzendoff.