The Nigerian trio of Sylvester Emmanuel, Joseph Imeh and Christian Paul who are in Uganda for the ITF Futures, are hoping to make it to the main draw of the $15,000 tournament.
Nigerian Tennis Live had reported some days ago that Sylvester was in the East African country for the tournament with a promise to follow up on his performances in the pro-circuit. The Nigerian star did not disappoint, as he made it past a stubborn Hassan Ndayishimiye in his first match of the qualifying series.
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| Christian Paul and Joseph Imeh are presently in Uganda, trying to pick valuable ATP points. |
The dark-skinned Nigerian wonder boy defeated the 23-year-old Burundian in the final set of their match where they played out a 3-6, 6-1,6-1 game which was just eight minutes short of the two-hour mark.
After this win, Sylvester, the number five seed in the qualifying series, will have to hit top form when he takes on Syria’s Yacoub Makzoume in the second match of the qualifiers.
The other Nigerians – Imeh and Christian – playing in the tournament will be playing their first matches against Indian and Peruvian opponents in a bid to justify the wild cards they got to play the qualifiers. Each of them got a bye in the first round of the qualifiers.
Imeh will have to prove why he is Nigeria’s current number one player when he takes to the court against Peru’s Andre Ku Meza, while Christian will have to justify his rating as one of Nigeria’s finest when he spars against 20-year-old Rishi Reddy from India.
The Nigerian players will hope for a main draw berth and hope to progress beyond that in the coming days and Nigerian Tennis Live will keep monitoring their performances and update our followers accordingly.