ISRAEL TAIWO
Though he is ranked 1170 on the ATP world tour, Nigeria’s number one male tennis player, Sylvester Emmanuel believes foreign players coming for this year’s Governor’s Cup Lagos Tennis Championship are in for a big war as he is determined to win the International Tennis Federation (ITF) approved competition.
To the local boy, the likes of Cem Ilkel of Turkey, the highest ranked player in Governor’s Cup in the men’s event this year will find it hard to win the tournament as he has been preparing to cause major upset this year.
Emmanuel who is based in Spain made a bold statement about this year’s Governor’s Cup Lagos Tennis, stating that he is coming to the country to participate and win the tournament.
In an interview from his base in Barcelona, the man fondly called Major by close friends, noted that he not only desires to win the tournament this year, he has also put in a lot of work to believe that he can win it.
The Doubles finalist at the Dayak Open in Abuja early this year noted that he already registered for the 17th edition of the ITF Pro-circuit in Lagos which is attracting top 200 players from all over the world.
When asked if he was setting a new target for himself at this year’s event, the Davis Cup player Nigerian Tennis Live that “I have the mindset to come and win it, and I guess it’s the same with other players too. But we will see how it goes.”
On why he has so much confidence in his abilities as against the last edition where he set a semi final target, Sylvester, whose elder brother was also a former Nigerian number one player, stated emphatically that a lot has changed about his game.
“So many things have changed about me since the last time. My game has improved a lot and I am getting a lot of experiences everyday.
“Yes I can win the tournament, everything is possible.
“I am saying this with a lot of confidence because I have put in a lot of hard work in practice and have participated in several other Futures between then and now,” he added.