Wheelchair puma tennis has come to stay, says Sani Ndanusa
Sani Ndanusa, the president of the Nigeria wheelchair Tennis Federation, says the Puma Engineering Wheelchair Tennis Championships have come to stay in Nigeria. He said Puma Engineering Wheelchair Tennis is a continental Championship which will be a frequent Championship to keep the players fit ahead of major International Tournaments. According to him, Puma international is a point earning from International Tennis Federation (ITF) and Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP). This competition will bring players close to the qualification for the Paralympics and that is the reason they decided to organise the tournament in Nigeria.
He said they are trying to encourage them and to support them to continue to play and he is glad they are able to do the third edition of puma wheelchair tournament. He said that he is happy the sports is getting also more and more popular and the quality and standard increasing by the year. Wheelchair puma tennis has come to stay because of the value it is adding to the sport not only in Nigeria but in Africa and the world. He added that sponsorship is one of the key factors slowing the development of the sport.
He said sponsorship is another issue because sponsorship is key. One cannot go to major tournaments without being sponsored. They would try to see how they can provide some grants like transport and training grants. He said in the last edition, about five countries participate — Cameroon, Tanzania, Ghana , Kenya and Nigeria. Only Kenya and Nigeria are participating in the third edition, because most countries are just coming out from COVID-19 which affected low the participation of countries.
He believed that in the next edition, we will have more countries to participate. We will keep on working hard. We will continue to encourage the players present in this edition. Supreme reports that the third edition of the PUMA Engineering Wheelchair Tennis Championships which started on Thursday are expected to end on Saturday.
