The Nigerian duo of Sylvester Emmanuel and Joseph Imeh have qualified for the main draw of the ITF Futures taking place in Uganda, Nigerian Tennis Live can report.
Both players were top seeds in the qualifying series and did not disappoint with their performances against their Peruvian and Syrian opponents in the matches played on clay courts at the Lugogo Tennis Club in Kampala.
Sylvester made a minced meat of his opponent, Yaccoub Makzoume from Syria, defeating him in two straight sets of 7-6 (3), 6-2, just as Imeh – a wild card entrant into the qualifiers – overcame Andre Ku Meza, his Peruvian opponent, beating him 7-5, 6-1 in a match that lasted about 1hr 25mins.
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| Joseph Imeh, Nigeria’s number one player, is through to the main draw of the ITF Futures in Uganda. |
Nigerian Tennis Live checks also revealed that the third Nigerian in action today, Christian Paul, has had his match against Rishi Reddy from India, suspended, with the Nigerian down by 0-4 (15-40) and his opponent about to hold his serve.
As at the time of filing this report, our correspondent could not figure out why the match was suspended, but checks on ITF website showed that the match had been interrupted and had yet to resume play.
The Nigerians will now wait for the pairings for the main draws which will be concluded later today, to know whom they will square up against in the week-long ITF Futures which is attracting top 200 players in the world.
Nigerian Tennis Live will keep tabs on the players’ performances as the tournament progresses and continue with a daily report of their progress in the East African country.