Odisor, Nduka

Nduka Odizor was born and raised in Nigeria. At the age of 15, he met professor Robert Ren from the USA, who taught at the University of Lagos, who financed his move to Texas and study at a private school ^[2] . Nduka graduated from the University of Houston in 1981 with a marketing degree and, speaking during his years as a university tennis and track and field athletics team, was recognized as the “Athlete of the Year” this year ^[3] .

After the end of his playing career, Odisor founded a number of companies, including a construction corporation that carries out orders in Africa, an advertising agency and a tennis club. He is an activist in the charity Tennis for Africa, headquartered in Italy, which sponsors not only the development of sports, but also the construction of hospitals and orphanages on the African continent ^[2] . Odisor resides in Texas with his wife Karen and son Nicholas. ^[3]

As a child, Nduka Odizor handed balls to players at the Ikoi Lagos Tennis Club, whose members were mostly wealthy immigrants from the UK. Later, the boy himself began to play tennis, at the age of 12 he appeared in an open lesson, which was given by Americans Arthur Ash and Stan Smith , who played in Nigeria, with a wooden racket cut from the board ^[2] . Later, when Professor Wren, impressed by the abilities of a young African, sponsored his studies in the United States, Odisor’s skill quickly progressed. While studying at the university, he was included in the symbolic amateur team of the United States three times (in 1978, 1980 and 1981), and in 1981 reached the semi-finals of the NCAA championship in singles and doubles and was named the “athlete of the year” at the University of Houston ^[3] .

Already in 1981, Odisor visited the semi-finals of the Grand Prix tournaments in North Conway (New Hampshire) and Geneva in doubles. In the first case, his partner was American David Dowlen , a successful collaboration with which continued in the following years. In November, in Benin (Nigeria), Odisor reached the first single of his career finals of the Challenger tournament in singles. In April 1982, he won a tournament of this class in Tokyo, including winning the 16-year-old Pat Cash in the semifinals, the future star of Australian tennis. Until the end of the season, two more future players of the top ten of world tennis Johan Crick and Jacob Hlasek were added to the number of beaten rivals. In doubles, Odisor won one Challenger and made it to the semi-finals in Grand Prix tournaments twice.

1983 was the most successful in the career of a Nigerian. During the season, he won three Grand Prix tournaments - two in doubles and one in singles, and also made it to the quarterfinals of the US Open and the third round of the Australian Open in men's pairs. Most of these successes in the doubles were achieved with Doulen, with whom Nduka twice reached the semifinals. In singles, in addition to winning the Taipei Grand Prix tournament , Odisor also played in the semi-finals in Monterrey and reached the fourth round at Wimbledon , defeating the fifth racket of the world by Guillermo Vilas in the first round; in this match, Vilas led 2-0 in sets and had a match-ball, but the African tennis player managed to turn the tide of the game and win ^[2] . In June of the following year, he reached the semifinals of the Grand Prix tournament in Bristol, getting close to the Top 50 of the world singles ranking, and paired with Dowlen four times in a year playing in the finals of the Grand Prix tournaments, winning two of them in August rose in the ranking in doubles to twentieth place. They played two more finals next season, having won another title - the fourth during joint performances and the fifth in the double career of Odizor.

In 1986, the Nigeria team, after a long absence, returned to the Davis Cup . The auditor was immediately invited to her ranks and helped her win three consecutive matches against African and European rivals. He won all nine of his meetings in these matches - six in singles and three in doubles. His individual career, however, began to fail, and in August he dropped out of the hundred strongest doubles players in the world ^[4] . In singles, he managed to keep his place in the first hundred due to a successful game in the Challengers (three wins and one defeat in the finals), but in more prestigious tournaments he did not go further than the third round. Balancing on the verge of relegation from among the hundred strongest singles lasted until November 1987, although this season Odisor performed more successfully in the Grand Prix, reaching the semifinals in Adelaide after defeating the 35th racket of the world, Ramesh Krishnan , and in London Queen's Club tournament beating Slobodan Zhivoinovich who occupied the 21st place in the ranking. At the US Open, he won the second round of just starting professional career Michael Chang - before he won the French Open , there were about two more years left.

In February 1988, after more than a two-year hiatus, Odisor reached the ninth in the career final of the Grand Prix tournament in doubles. He later took part in the first Olympic tennis tournament in Seoul after a half-century hiatus, but there he lost in the first round both in singles and paired with Tony Mmo . He came closest to his previous successes in 1990, when he won two tournaments of the new professional APR tour and by October rose to 63rd place in the doubles rating ^[4] . He continued his professional performances until the end of 1992, in August in Segovia (Spain), reaching with the Argentinean Roberto Saad to the last in the career of the finals of the Challenger. In the spring of 1993, he played for the last time for the Nigeria national team in the Davis Cup, bringing her one point in a lost match against Romania . In total, he held 33 meetings for 11 Nigerian teams in 11 matches, winning 20 of them (including 15 in singles).

Singles (1)

Victory (1)

Doubles (11)

Wins (7)

Lost (4)

• Profile on ATP website

• Profile on the Davis Cup website