Balami: Setting forth in tennis at dawn

Already, his outstanding performance in tennis has fetched him a full scholarship to study in South Africa at the Penforest Tennis Academy where he has done two of the four years he is expected to spend studying the rudiments of the sport. Umaru Balami who hails from Biu Local Government of Borno State was born […]

Already, his outstanding performance in tennis has fetched him a full scholarship to study in South Africa at the Penforest Tennis Academy where he has done two of the four years he is expected to spend studying the rudiments of the sport.

Umaru Balami who hails from Biu Local Government of Borno State was born on February 25 1995, to a father who is an accountant with one of the new generation banks in Lagos and a mother who is a businesswoman. He grew up in Lagos where his interest in the game of tennis was ignited by his elder brother Sani who is also a tennis player.

Held spell bound by the way elder brother plays the game, the interest became so serious that he asked to be allowed to be part of the game at least as an observer. In order not to quench the fire which he saw in his younger siblings eyes, Sani gave his consent for Umaru to begin his career as a ball boy. This opportunity to pick balls for the bigger players laid the foundation for the growth of the young tennis star who is already on his way to becoming a household name in Nigerian tennis.

At the age of 15, Umaru has represented Nigeria at several cadet Championships. He started with local competitions where with the guidance of big brother Sani and other senior players in his neighbourhood, he clearly excelled. After winning convincingly at the U-13 tennis circuit, the teenager became a golden fish that can not be hidden. It did not take long for the Director of International Tennis Federation, ITF, School in South Africa to identify the budding talent. With the aid of one of his coaches, he was awarded a full scholarship to study at the prestigious tennis institute.

Already Umaru has exhausted two of the four years and the impact of the school on his game has been quite evident. When he first arrived the Nelson Mandela nation, he could not cope with the standard of play which his school mates exhibited. Like he rightly confessed, his opponents made a mice meat of him anytime they found him on court. However, that is a thing of the past as the now confident and exposed Nigerian is always at the top of his game.

For the teenager, there are a lot of challenges ahead but he is ready to surmount all obstacles to achieve his dream of playing professional tennis, and if possible nick the fame achieved by his idol, Rafael Nadal of Spain. If everything works according to laid down plan for him, he will graduate from Penforest Tennis Academy after four years of thorough drilling and then proceed to the United States of America where he hopes to study and play tennis in any of the colleges there.

At the tender age of 15, Umaru is already a dreaded player among his peers because he has acquired so much experience and techniques which can only be gotten through international exposure. At the on going Africa Junior Championship in Abuja, he is the cynosure of all eyes, especially in his age category. Interestingly, the attention he enjoys is not proving to be any distraction to him as he has continued to play and win his matches with relative ease.

Umaru’s target is to win the championship to atone for the loss in Ghana where he could not win the final match during the qualifiers for the Abuja event. Instead of sap his confidence; he has been fired up by that defeat in Ghana to conquer all opponents, for he knows that it is the surest way to winning the championship.

Right inside little Umaru is infectious patriotism as he has vowed to play for his country for the rest of his life. Without prompting from anyone, he knows that north, south, east or west, home is the best. Thus, whatever knowledge he has acquired and is going to acquire in the course of his sojourn abroad, will be for the benefit of his fatherland. For now, this is the story of Umaru, an immensely talented and promising left handed junior tennis player who has set forth at dawn in his chosen career.