By Maria Famakinwa
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The Wife of Ondo State Governor, Mrs Betty Anyanwu-Akeredolu, has appealed to well meaning citizens of the State to support the game of tennis in order to discover more talents who will become future champions.
She made this appeal in Akure at the official flag-off of the 2021 Ondo State Summer Tennis Clinic, the fourth of its kind for kids aged 4-13 aimed at discovery talents.
While appreciating members of the Committee for making this year’s Summer Tennis Clinic a reality, she said,” We need more sponsors for this programme. Summer Tennis Clinic is a ground to discover more talents and it is not easy to organise this programme without sponsors because it not Ondo State programme.
Tennis is a family game for us we also encourage our children to play tennis. Some people saw this talent in us and advised that it should be introduced in Ondo State to discover talents.
“We need to sustain the interest of the children. This is the time we can catch them young and build the talents in them. Parents should also support the participants to achieve their dreams of becoming future champions. Tennis Summer Clinic is for both gender to show that I also have interest in the boys. Aside the fact that playing tennis is good for the health, it also enrich the players. International champions are making money through the game of tennis.”
The Chairman of this year’s Summer Tennis Clinic, Mr. Jimmy Odinayo, who commended the unrelenting effort of the First Lady’s office to make this year’s event a reality and appealed for more support for the Summer Tennis Clinic. He said, getting sponsors will help more children from humble backgrounds with the interest of playing Tennis at professional level to achieve their aims.”
He mentioned the like of Olamilekan David, who is currently the best under 16 in the South-West, Peace Agbeje who reached the Semi-final in CBN championship, Henry Aina, who made the State proud at the Cheveron Junior Tennis Championship among others and added that they might not have been discovered without the Summer Tennis Clinic.
He said, “These players never had prior knowledge of tennis before participating in the Summer Tennis Clinic, but are now representing the State at Tournaments. Without this initiative, they would most probably never have discovered their talents and love for the game.”