Adewale Picks Wild Card

Nigeria enhanced its chances of having a memorable outing at the London 2012 Olympic Games when it picked a wild card ticket in the Wheelchair Tennis as Alex Adewale emerged champions in an Olympic qualifying tournament which was held in Johannesburg, South Africa.

National Wheelchair Tennis coach, Frank Tarmena stated that Adewale, who in August shone in the Salzburg Open in Austria which led the International Tennis Federation (ITF), jerked Nigeria’s wild card to three from its previous single slot took his stupendous form that has seen him rise to the top three in the domestic stage to the ACSA Johannesburg Open which took place at the Selbourne Park Tennis Stadium in East London, where he won all his five matches to clinch the title at the expense of the other 24 players which represented 14 countries.

He was however, unable to repeat the feat in the second leg which was the ACSA Border Opens which took place at the University of Johannesburg Tennis Club when he lost in the second round. He did however, left the tournament with his head high above his shoulders when he partnered a South African to win the doubles in the ACSA Border Open.

Adewale who returned to Nigeria Tuesday evening expressed satisfaction that he was able to achieve his dream of qualification despite the difficult circumstances that he experienced ahead of the championship.

“It was like a miracle because, I wasn’t sure of making it to the tournament because just about two days to the start of the tournament, I was still running around to get some money to spend but thank to coach Frank who rallied round to make sure that I did not miss the tournament,” he said.

Tarmena stated that he is still optimistic that Nigeria will get all the wild card tickets that the country is open to stating that the duo of Wasiu Yusuf who featured in Beijing 2008 and Jude Uwaize alongside two female players will be under intense preparations for the next qualifier salted for February 2012 in Kenya.