No fewer than nine Nigerian players are in the Main Draw of the ongoing J30 Accra Junior ITF Event holding in Ghana, Nigeria Tennis Live has gathered.
Of the nine players, five are girls while four are boys, with Nigeria’s Franklin Jimoh leading the pack in the Boys Singles event as the number one seed.
Olorun-Damilola Agunbiade who got directly into the Main Draw, is accompanied by Ayomiposi Agboola and Lucky Danjuma, both of who reached the First Round through the qualifying rounds.
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Of all the Nigerian male players, only Agboola had played his first match round, and he ensured a clean swoop after seeing off Mohammed Desheni Alhassan, a Wild Card entrant, in a 6-1, 6-1 game.
Agunbiade and Danjuma will both take on Ghana’s Donatus Nyaaba and Joseph Sonny Atitsogbei respectively, to stand a chance to reach the second round of the competition.
In the Girls’ Draw, Khadijat Mohammed and Etoro Bassey are among the top seeded players, and got a bye each to reach the second round without as much as hitting a ball while Bisola Ogunkolade, Success Ogunjobi and Toluwalase Agunbiade are the other female Nigerians in the tournament.
Agunbiade, seeded eight for the event, won her first round match with a resounding 6-4, 6-2 defeat of Nassirath Biaou from Benin Republic while Ogunkolade was in blistering form in her fifth outing at an ITF event.
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The CBN Junior Tennis U-14 finalist put up a virtuoso performance to defeat Lisel Ampah from Ghana and reach the second round of an ITF event for only the second time.
The Ekiti player had to dig deep after dropping the first set 4-6 against the home player to take the second and final sets 6-2, 6-2 in an entertaining encounter on Monday afternoon.
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Ogunkolade will now face Mazamesso Grace Tchamoussa, a Togolese, to reach her first ever quarterfinal in an ITF event.
Meanwhile, Jiselle Okoye from Great Britain proved too strong for Ogunjobi (no 7 seed), who lost in the final set to her tough playing opponent.
Nigeria Tennis Live will keep tabs on the youngsters in Ghana as they keep up with the six-week competition in the neighbouring West African country.