From Ball Boy to Champion: How Onitsha Country Club Is Building Anambra’s Next Generation of Tennis Stars

Emeka Emewulu once fetched balls at Onitsha Country Club, Fegge. On Saturday, October 31, he lifted the maiden Anambra Governor’s Cup, beating Rev. Fr. Peter Ibeazor of Anambra Sports Club, Awka, 6-1, 6-3 in Awka.

It capped the club’s unbeaten run. Emewulu swept aside the host club, Anambra Country Club, 6-0, 6-2 in the opening leg. He then beat Rojenny Sports Club, Oba, 6-1, 6-0 in the quarter-finals and Elite Club 6-0, 6-2 in the semi-finals. The 16-club tournament was sponsored by Audi Company Ltd.

The club won N1 million from Audi and a further N2 million from Governor Chukwuma Soludo. Anambra Country Club, the host, was commended for staging a smooth event.

For the club’s President, Anietonwa Kingsley Ajulufo, the win was the product of a deliberate culture.

“We have a culture of nurturing future champions, and it didn’t start today,” Ajulufo said. He praised Emewulu’s sacrifices and noted that the player had already won the Anambra North Tennis Open, hosted at the club and sponsored by Senator Stella Oduah, the APGA senatorial candidate for Anambra North senatorial zone.

Ajulufo suggested that the Governor’s extra N2 million will go straight into the club’s tennis academy. It will help train young talent from Fegge and the wider Onitsha South community.

The academy takes in children aged 8 to 14 and is about to get a companion. A new miniature football pitch is nearing completion. It will open a football academy that runs alongside the tennis programme, giving the club a full youth sports complex.

Ajulufo credits a strong circle of prominent supporters for the push. They include: Sir Tony Ezenna, Chairman of Orange Drugs, who leads the club’s Board of Trustees, Dr Dan Chukwudozie, Chairman of Dozzy Oil and Gas, HRM Ebuka Onunkwo, Chairman of Seahorse Lubricants and the NDC Senatorial Candidate for Anambra South senatorial zone, Chief Nnamdi Ndibueze, Senator Uche Ekwunife, the APC senatorial candidate for Anambra South senatorial zone, Chief Evergreen Ezenwa, High Chief Okwuchukwu Madubugwu and High Chief Ifeanyi Ojimba, all patrons who have helped upgrade the club’s sports infrastructure, and Senator Stella Oduah, the APGA senatorial candidate for Anambra North senatorial zone, whose sponsorship put the Anambra North Tennis Open on the club’s courts.

The newest boost came from Super High Chief Emeka Okonkwo, popularly known as “Electric Money,” the club’s latest patron. He has pledged N20 million to the club. He also announced an “E-Money” internal tennis tournament with a car as its star prize.

Ajulufo said the club will keep bringing its trustees and patrons, including Orange Drugs, E-Money, Dozzy Oil, Seahorse and Transtell, into its development plans.

With a champion at the top, an academy filling up below him and a football pitch about to open, Onitsha Country Club is building a legacy of excellence in, and around, Onitsha. Ajulufo says his executive team will keep the club at the front of Anambra tennis. Emewulu’s rise from ball boy to state champion is the example he points to.