The NCC Tennis League returned at the weekend with some very emotional games, especially for debuting Team Tech Vibe.
The Jos-based team, who were playing their first match in the competition, bowed to the superior firepower of defending champions, Team Offikwu from Anambra, losing 6 matches in the process. But it was not all bad for them.
A former junior player, Michael Michael, ensured that his team was not totally embarrassed as he defeated Henry Atseye, a former national champion, in two straight sets of 6-4, 7-6 in what could be called an upset.
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| Michael played out his hearts to defeat the former national champion. |
Henry, a former CBN Open winner put up a spirited display to complete an emphatic win for his team, but Michael’s determination was more than enough to see the former junior player through, and also give his team something to cheer.
The team’s manager, Olalekan Oke, expressed his gladness at his team’s commencement of the tournament, but was visibly unhappy with the result.
“The most painful aspect is that the guys gave their all, they played out their hearts and it was really sad that we lost that way.
“No disrespect to Team Offikwu, they also played really well and they are the defending champions. But I felt our players deserved more than they got from the first encounter,” an unhappy Oke stated.
The newcomers will now have to work really hard in their next match against Team Ndoma-Egba in the fixture slated for the weekend of 2 and 3 September, 2017.
According to Oke: “We will now return to the drawing board and tighten every loose end and make sure that we build on our little success, then take it up from there.
“We shall correct every mistake from the last fixture and hopefully, we can bounce back even better in Abuja when next we play.”
Other updates from the NCC League will be published later on Monday.