In spite of the extreme hard work they out into their quest to advance to the next phase of the ongoing Daya Open in Abuja, Nigeria’s federal capital, the Nigerian players could not defeat their foreign counterparts.
In the matches involving Christian Paul and Emmanuel Audu, the only Nigerians remaining in the competition, the foreign players dominated, even though the home boys put up serious fight and resistance on the court.
Paul, Nigeria’s highest ranked player by the ITF at 1443, could not stand the firepower of Swedish number two seed, Markus Eriksson, as he lost 6-0 6-4 in a match that lasted 57 minutes on Court 1 while Audu, a wild card entrant, succumbed 6-1, 6-4 to Thomas Setodji of France.
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| Christian Paul tried his best but it was not good enough. |
Brazilian Joao Menezes continued his impressive display by shocking third-seeded Egyptian Karim-Mohamed Maamoun 6-3, 6-0 on Centre Court paving the way for the unseeded South American to be in the hunt for a second straight title having won the Tombim Open Nigeria F1 futures last week.
Austrian fourth seed, Maximilian Neuchrist also advanced to the second round with a 6-3, 6-3 triumph over Dutchman Jelle Sels same for sixth seed, Moez Echargui of Tunisia who bagged a 7-6, 6-2 win over Alexis Klegou of Benin.
Indian Suraj Prabodh edged fellow qualifier, Mirko Martinez of Switzerland 7-5, 3-6, 6-1 but another Indian Arjun Kadhe, the fifth seed, was beaten 6-0, 6-3 by Tom Jomby of France.
In the longest match of the day, Stephan Jerritsen of the Netherlands needed 2 hours and 19 minutes to scale the hurdle of Diego Matos of Brazil, a wild card benefactor, with a 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 scoreline.
Frenchman Floyd Angele edged Ronniee Schneider of the USA 4-6, 6-1, 7-5in a match just a minute shy of two hours to also progress to the second round which holds on Wednesday.
In the doubles, Dutch duo of Gerristsen and Sels progressed to the quarterfinal at the expense of top-seeded Sabanov brothers, Ivan and Matej following a 6-3, 3-6, 10-8 win.