Nigeria on Wednesday booked five more semifinal places at the 2016 ITF/CAT West and Central Africa Junior Championship holding at the National Tennis Centre Abuja as Marylove Edwards, Barakat Quadri, Timipre Maxwell, Daniel Adeleye and Favour Friday all advanced to the medal zone.
10-year-old Marylove had in the morning session lost the last of her group match to Cameroun’s Manuella Eloundou 6-0, 4-6 6-1 but was impressive as she brushed aside Vania Dotze of Togo 6-0, 6-0 in the quarterfinal played in the afternoon.
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| Young Gabriel Inyang during a tournament in 2014. He is in line for a place in the finals of the ITC/CAT Circuit |
She is joined in the semifinal by Quadri, who defeated her compatriot, Toyin Asogba 7-5, 6-0. Favour Friday also did Nigeria proud as she defeated Patricia Nyaako of Ghana 6-0, 6-4.
Nigeria is also on course in the Girls’ 12&U as 2014 CBN Junior most outstanding player, Timipre Maxwell of the Kodian Tennis Academy in Port Harcourt clinched a semifinal place at the expense of Patricia Wamba of Cameroun to set up a confrontation with another Camerounian, Norrah Lemongo.
In the Boy’s 12&U, Ekiti state junior tennis champion, Daniel Adeleye will battle fellow Nigerian, Gabriel Inyang, for a place in the final while Thursday’s semifinal action will also see Michael Osewa and Charles Alipoe of Togo size up each other.
In the Girls’ 16&U, Angel McLeod and South Africa-based Adetayo Adetunji will keep semifinal dates with Linda Elondou of Cameroun and Aichatta Keita of Mali while in the Boys’ 16&U, Christopher Itodo will play Frederic Coulibaly of Cote d’Ivoire and Christopher Bulus confronts Delmas N’tcha of Benin Republic.
Nigeria, Benin, Cameroun,Congo, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Gabon, Gambia, Mali Sierra Leone, Togo are featuring in the week long event which serves as qualifier for the main African Junior Championships billed for Pretoria, South Africa in March.