Francis Ajuonuma
Rising tennis star, Heman Afaramai at the weekend announced his readiness to compete against the very best at the senior level following his impressive performance at the 2026 Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Junior Tennis Championship which ended at the tennis courts of Ikoyi Club 1938, Lagos on 28th of March.
Competing in the boys 16s, the hard hitting Nigeria Police College Tennis Academy, Ikeja, Lagos youth player, displayed amazing skill and doggedness to outplayed favourite, Damilola Agunbiade, representing Cross River State 9-7 to emerge champion.
It was a tough clash, very tight that would have gone either way however Agunbiade has himself to blame for allowing the game to slip off his hands while leading at 5-3.
The Girls 16s final was an easy one for Gloria Samuel, who wasted no time in dispatching Favour James 9-3 to be come the 2026 CBN Junior Tennis Champion.
In other categories, Pinky Onyemenam of Abuja Tennis Academy, surpassed all oppositions to emerge champion of the Girls 12s category. She defeated Amira Mohammed 9-4 in the final, while Gideon Peter beat Moroti Sowemimo, 9-2 to emerge champion in the boys 12s age category
The boys 14 title was won by Alaba Adesina who defeated Gideon Afaramai 9-5 while Barakat Ganiyu best Sinmi Olaniyan 9-5 to also emerge victorious in the Girls 14s age bracket.
Apart from emerging champion in the Girls 12s category, Pinky also stood out to win the girls most outstanding player award for 2026 while Heman Afaramai emerged as the most outstanding player in the boys category.
Reacting his victory, an excited Afaramai admitted that it did not come that easy as Agunbiade gave him real fight for the title.
“Yes, it was not an easy game. Agunbiade is a tough player to play against. At the early stage of the game I lost my concentration but regained it and took advantage of his mistakes to win more points and I’m happy about it. My next target is to play at senior level and challenge for titles,” he said.
Gloria Samuel in her post match interview said her victory was the out come of hard work and commended the management of the CBN for supporting tennis in the country.
“I’m excited winning the Girls 16s. I trained hard for it and I commend CBN for the championship which has given me some exposure as well,” she said
Championship Coordinator, Godwin Kienka, lauded the players for their quality of play in the championship, noting that the standard this year was higher than the previous year.
“Each time we play each tournament each year, we see that the standard of the ones coming behind is higher than those they are replacing. So that gives us a lot of joy. We hope that with this solid foundation we have, we are hoping that these ones will give the seniors a fight in the coming senior tournaments. Hopefully we will start to build professional players as well,” he said.
“This year’s standard has been very high compared to the previous edition and commend the players for giving out their best in the court. I already said Herman.I thought he was outstanding, Dami Lola was very outstanding, Pinky was very outstanding, Barakat was outstanding and Gloria is coming into her own now. Wisdom, also great.
“So we have a lot of players. Even at the junior level, we have the 12th level, who are great fighters with great spirit. It’s not enough to have skill. You have to have competitive spirit to go there and fight. And it’s all the kind of fight they put up in the matches. That’s what we’re looking for,” Kienka added.
