McDan targets Grand Slam with latest tennis development project
Kweku Zurek
Sports News
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the McDan Group of Companies, Mr Daniel McKorley has announced a revolutionary tennis development project which he says will result in a Ghanaian making an appearance at the finals of any of the four Grand Slam competitions (four major tennis competitions).
According to the tennis enthusiast and financier, the ambitious project will involve his outfit sponsoring eight talented young tennis players to pursue their dreams of becoming tennis world beaters. He said the players will be selected from the just-ended McDan Junior Open Championship and will be sent to Morocco for an intensive training camp at the International Tennis Federation (ITF)/CAT High Performance Tennis Centre in Casablanca.
"The plan I have for these kids is that they are going to Morocco to play competitive tennis and they will come back," Dr McKorley said yesterday when he handed over scholarship cheques to the winners of last Saturday's McDan Junior Open Championship in Accra.
"We are selecting eight of these kids, their school fees - fully paid - put them in Winneba, they are going to train there day and night. They will stay with coach Noah Bagerbaseh and after that, we are going to send them to the ITF centre in Morocco and they will stay in Morocco for another two years.
"After that and depending on their performance in Morocco we will fly them to the United States of America. All this depends on your performance and discipline, it is not automatic, if you are not doing well but the sky is the limit".
The President of the Ghana Tennis Federation pledged his support for the project, saying it will return the Golden Rackets (national tennis team) to the heights of the Davis Cup competition.
"You are always full of surprises for Ghana tennis, last time you surprised us with a bus, then an increase in prize money and this is what the GTF has always looked for, catching them young.
"We have good talents at U-12 and U-14, so to select them and camp them in Winneba is the best because they will play tennis in the morning, come back home and play tennis again and the sky will be the limit".
Earlier, Mr Mckorley presented two tennis coaches Noah Bukari Bagerbaseh and Francis Asare Manu of the St Francis Foundation (Ashaiman) with $1,000 each.
He also presented scholarships worth GHC 15,500 to the winners and semi-finalists of the last Saturday's McDan Junior Open Championship.
