Angel McLeod on Tuesday made a winning return to competitive tennis following the death of her mother by beating Mattu Kamara of Sierra Leone 6-2, 6-3 as the 2016 ITF/CAT Africa Junior Championships West & Central Africa qualifiers continue in Abuja.
The right-handed 15-year-old r endured a torrid start to the round-robin girls’ 16&u match as her Thailand-based opponent hit some early winners but she responded with great effect hitting her own winners in-between a couple of aces to the delight of the spectators which include NTF President Sani Ndanusa, CAT Zone 2 Vice President, Yemi Owoseni and Athletics Federation of Nigeria(AFN) boss Solomon Ogba.
Nigeria’s Adetayo Adetunji also got a 6-2,6-2 win over Fatoumata Kaita of Mali while Christopher Bulus and Christopher Itodo both secured wins over Fetege Coulibaly of Cote d’Ivoire and Felix Hammong of Ghana 6-2, 6-1 in the boys 16&u. Ibrahim Souleyman also beat Amza Kabba of Sierra Leone 6-0, 6-2.
The major shock of the day saw Nigeria’s Oyinlomo Barakat Quadri lost 6-3,6-0 to Anna Lemongo of Cameroun.
“It was a very poor match for me; I know I could have done better because I beat her in straight sets at the main AJC in Morocco last year. I will work harder to qualify from the group,” the12-year-old said as she look towards her next match against Naa McKorley of Ghana today.
Nigeria’s dominance of the tournament met further resistance as David Amusu lost 6-3, 6-4 to Benin’s N’tcha Delmas while Chidinma Eze and Favour Moses were beaten 6-0,6-0 and 6-2, 7-5 byAichata Keita of Mali and Vania Dotze of Togo respectively.