PLAYERS across the country will today besiege the tennis court of the National Stadium as the 34th Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Open Tennis Championship serves off in Lagos.The players, who have been perfecting their skills for the mouthwatering championship, will begin the quest for places in the main draw, which will commence on Monday. For this year's event, the prize money has been increased to N9 million, with the winners of singles events to earn N.6 million each.CBN Director of Corporate Communication, Ugochukwu Okoroafor, said the increase in prize money was in line with the promise made by the CBN Governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, during the final of the 2011 edition in Lagos. The governor had promised to improve on the cash rewards, with the men and women winners earning equal amount of money.According to Okoroafor, 'in order to make participation in the event more competitive and attractive to both local and foreign-based players, especially the female players, the total prize money for winners in the 2011 edition has been reviewed upward from N6, 840,000 to N9, 060,000.'This remarkable lift in the prize money was also hinged on the CBN's commitment to comply with the international tennis practice and the bank's desire to create a gender-sensitive balance.'Okoroafor, who was represented by the CBN Head of Events Management, Martins Oguda, said this edition would see the ladies singles' winner earn N600,000 just as the men's singles champion.Meanwhile, the Vice President of the Nigeria Tennis Federation, Adeyemi Owoseni, has said the hike in prize money would make this edition exciting, just as he noted that the tourney has contributed immensely to the growth of the game by serving as trials for Davis Cup and other international championships.
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