Clifford Enosoregbe and Sylvester Emmanuel have once again, proven to be Nigeria’s best players at this year’s Governor’s Cup Lagos Tennis Championship.
Both players who made it to the quarter final stage of the first leg, were not shy to show their prowess in the second leg, by churning out impressive wins to advance to the next stage of the competition.
While Clifford upset seven seed, Alexis Klegou 6-4, 6-3, Sylvester played until the final set before seeing off doubles partner, Duncan Mugabe 7-5, 4-6, 6-3 in another entertaining encounter.
Another interesting encounter on the day was the surprising win of Mohammed Mohammed, a Nigerian youngster who won in two straight sets of 7-6 (3), 6-4 against Ghana’s Segbedzie, Tsatsu Kofi.
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| Clifford taught the power-playing Beninoise some tennis lessons at the centre court |
Mohammed was 1-5 down at a point in the game, and had been tipped to lose the set and fight for the next, but the young player showed that there are no push overs in the country by winning straight games before eventually taking the set.
The second set was another tough encounter for the Nigerian but he made it count as he locked the game up at 6-4 to bring an end to a fantastic performance by a local player.
Otu Thomas also got the better of Albert Bikom 6-1, 6-4 in a match played under one hour at the court 4 of the Lagos Lawn Tennis Club, Onikan, Lagos.
In other games, Nigeria’s number one male tennis player, Michael Moses, was not lucky in his encounter against Smola Maciej of Poland, as he lost 3-6, 6-4, 4-6; Joseph Imeh also beat youngster Christopher Itodo 6-4, 6-4; Ikeckukwu Iloputa lost to Echargui, Moez, 2-6, 2-6; as Indian Mukund, Sasi Kumar (4) beat Christopher Bulus 6-0, 6-2.
In the doubles event, Sylvester and Mugabe partnered to defeat Nomso Madueke and Onyeka Mbanu 6-3, 7-6 (6); Mohammed and Imeh also squared up to beat Sunday Maku and Albert Bikom, 6-4, 5-7, 10-7.
Moses and his doubles partner, Christian Paul were however, not lucky as they were sent packing by the Polish pair of Maciej and Drzewiecki, Karol seeded three in the team event.