ORGANISERS of the 2011 Governor's Cup Lagos Tennis Championship have started moves to ensure that all foreign players that registered for the competition get easy entry into the country for the event.The tennis tourney will serve off at the Lagos Lawn Tennis Club, Onikan, on October 15. The organisers revealed yesterday that about 56 players and 25 officials from 26 countries have requested for invitation letters to ease their visas procurement to participate in the FCMB and Etisalat- sponsored championship.According to the organisers, some of the players are coming for the two-week international championship from Belgium, Brazil, Bosnia, France, Hungary,India, Israel, Japan, the Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Spain and Slovenia.Other countries with players interested in the event are Slovakia, Sweden, Switzerland, South Africa, Ukraine, United Kingdom, the United States, Zimbabwe, Czech Republic, Germany, Senegal and Cote d'Ivoire. Austria, Australia, Greece, Spain, Argentina, Ukraine, Croatia, Poland, Montenegro, Italy, Bulgaria and Sweden also have players hoping to be in Nigeria for the competition.According to the International Tennis Federation (ITF) website, some of the players who have already registered for the tourney include past winners, Boy Westerhof of Holland, Kamil Capkovic of Slovakia, Gard Catalin-ionut of Romania and Virali-Murugesan Ranjeet of India.In the women's event are Nina Bratchikova of Russia, Melanie Klaffner of Austria, Tamaryn Hendler of Belgium, Dalila Jakupovic of Slovakia, Agnes Szatmari of Romania, Karolina Nowak of Germany and Keren Shlomo of Israel.Anton Rens is the referee and the ITF representative is staging a comeback to Lagos after last year's competition. It was gathered that Rens would be assisted by Saidu Musa and Patrick Kumahia, and other 30 national umpires from the Nigeria Tennis Federation (NTF).The Local Organising Committee (LOC), headed by Pius Akinyelure, says it is working round the clock to ensure a smooth competition, which is currently the main avenue for Nigerian players to pitch their skills against foreign opponents.Some Nigerian players have started arriving in Lagos to begin final preparation for the championship, which no local star has won since Jonathan Igbonovia's feat in 2005.
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