The National Tennis Coach and Technical Director, Nigeria Tennis Federation (NTF), Rotimi Akinloye, has identified lack of sponsorship as a major challenge inhibiting the growth of the sport in the country.

Akinloye made this known in an interview with journalists during the just concluded 2-day workshop tagged, "Modern Day Tennis Coaching," organized by the Ogun State Tennis Association in conjunction with Southlake Tennis Centre, Texas.

The workshop, which took place at the green court, (tennis section) of the Abeokuta Sports Club, Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital attracted tennis coaches across the state, with Coach Rotimi Akinloye as the lead instructor and Wole Festus Akinyeju, Director, Southlake Tennis Centre, as facilitator.

To take tennis to the next level, Coach Akinloye said the present situation calls for sponsorship of tennis tournaments, saying Nigeria has enough talents.

"I use this medium to appeal to the Nigerian government and critical stakeholders particularly corporate bodies, multinationals to sponsor tennis because we have an array of talents in the country.

"Tennis is a capital intensive sports which needs a lot of funds to actualize trainings, programmes, tournaments, travels, and if sponsors are available, it would aid sustained programmes at least for 10 years and there would be appreciable impacts in terms of rankings, production of players, as well as growth and development of tennis in the country," he said.

The facilitator, Akinyeju maintained that the impact of the workshop was going to be positive, at least with time.

"I decided to return home to give back to the community that made me and contribute to the growth of tennis in Nigeria.

The highpoint of the workshop was the presentation of awards to deserving individuals who have contributed to the development of tennis in the state and award of certificates to all the coaches who participated in the seminar.