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Nigerian players taking part in the 15th Governor’s Cup
Lagos Tennis Championship began their quest for honours on a bright note in the
first round of the competition with Sylvester Emmanuel making the headlines following
his 7-6(3), 6-3 win over American Anderson Reed at the Lord Rummen Centre Court
of the Lagos Lawn Tennis Club, Onikan.
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Seventeen year old Emmanuel, a wild card entrant, clinched the men’s singles
title at the Dala Hard Court Championship in Kaduna, two weeks ago and he seems to have
saved his best for the Governor’s Cup as he could only watch his Team Kalotari
managed a third place finish at the NCC Team Tennis Final on Saturday.
An elated Emmanuel said after the match that he was not
surprised with the victory over Reed who is ranked 1488 in the world, adding
that hardwork and experience gained while travelling around the world to play
in different circuits won the match for him.
Hear him:“I feel great winning this match,i went into the match with great confidence that I would win. This is because I played more ATP
tournaments than Reed. He was a good
players but I’m better than him,” said Emmanuel, who in the past few months had
played in ATP ranked competition in the USA, Togo and Benin Republic.
The Nigerian star, however, said that this year’s Governor’s
Cup will be different for the local players as they are battle ready to give
their foreign counterparts a good run for their money.
Other Nigerians who made headway in the first round of the
men’s singles are Mohammed Mohammed, who defeated Ghana’s Bernard Dugbah 4-6,
5-3, 5-3, while Albert Bikom also edged Swiss Jessy Kalambay 5-7, 6-4, 7-5, all
in the men’s singles.
Some Nigerian ladies won their respective matches of the
first round, moving on to the second round. Ronke Akingbade beat compatriot
Christie Nwankwo 4-6, 6-2, 6-1, while Blessing Samuel lost to Osariemen
Airhumwunde 6-4, 6-2.
The duo of Mohammed Mohammed and Joseph Imeh beat the pair
of Alexei Filenkov of Russia and Aldin Setkic of Bosnia to progress to the
second round.
It was not a smooth sailing for Nigeria as Aminat Quadri lost
6-0, 6-0 to Frenchwoman Tessah Andrianoafitrimo while Kyra Shroff of India also
crushed Nigeria’s Rita Obasigie 6-0, 6-0 in the women’s singles.
In other results, Tadeja Majeric of Slovakia beat Eden
D’Oliveira of USA 60-3, 6-1. Ester Masuri of Israel defeated Olena Kyrpot of
Ukraine 6-0, 6-3. Germany’s Andiyo Inwang, who was given a wildcard was beaten
by Mara Schmidt of USA in straight set of 6-1, 6-3. Zimbabwe’s Valeria Bhumu
beat Usina Sumail of India 6-1, 6-2, while Alexandria Riley of USA defeated
Nina Kolar of Slovakia 5-3, 6-0 all in the women’s singles.
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