Five Nigerian tennis players have reached the quarterfinals of the J60 Accra event presently taking place in Ghana after amazing performances.
The players, mostly male, gave good accounts of themselves in their second round matches which were concluded on Wednesday afternoon inside the tennis section of the Accra Sports Stadium.
Lucky Danjuma was particularly impeccable as he wasted no time in sending Togo’s Mawuko Francois-Xavier Gakpo packing in two straight sets which ended 6-2, 6-2.
READ ALSO: Check Out Nigeria’s New Davis Cup Ranking After Promotion To World Group II Playoffs
He set up his first ever J60 quarterfinal match against Tanussh Ghildyal from India, and a win for the Nigerian will see him appear in his first J60 semifinal, an indication of how far the talented teenager has come.
Joined in the quarterfinal is Mubarak Ganiyu, another solid junior tennis youngster, who got the better of his Egyptian opponent in a keenly contested tie which the Nigerian won 6-3, 2-6, 6-3 to book a date with top seed Francky Hoimian.
Joseph Franklin Jimoh, finalist in the first week of J30 Accra, also made it to the quarterfinal of the ITF event where he will take on Netherland’s Laurence Teunissen after outsmarting Ori Hillel from Israel with a 6-4, 6-0 win.
The J60 Accra number two seed, Daniel Adeleye, was made to fight for his win against Moroccan Sami Hayes in a thrilling final set match. Adeleye came from behind to win 3-6, 6-1, 6-3 and will now trade serves against Raphael Nii Nortei Dowuona, the J30 Accra winner.
READ ALSO: Ogunsakin Nearing Elite Level In New Junior ITF Ranking
Etoro Bassey is the only Nigerian female player remaining in the tournament after another exhilarating performance in the second round to ensure a quarterfinal spot for Nigeria in the Girls Singles event.
She was in her best element when she played against Mbongta Awantang from USA and had to dig deep before coming out victorious with a 3-6, 7-6(4), 6-4 win.
The GEUF Tennis Academy player now has a date with Leila Akhmetova, the tournament’s number two seed, to secure a place in the semis of the J60 Accra competition.
Nigeria Tennis Live will keep monitoring the activities of the Nigerian players at the tournament and share all the updates with our esteemed readers scattered across the globe.