AJC Qualifiers: Impressive Team Nigeria Outplay Togo; Tackle Ghana, Cameroon For Final Berths
Following up from their impressive run of results at the ongoing ITF West and Central African Junior Championships in Lome, Togo, Team Nigeria ensured a comprehensive defeat of the stubborn hosts when they faced each other on Sunday, 13 January.
Nigeria Tennis Live had reported how Marylove Edwards lost her match to a Togolese player after a nerve wrecking Girls U-16 final, but the U-14 girls ensured that this did not happen when both sides played in the team event.
Results made available to our correspondent revealed that Iye Onoja, Serena Teluwo and Oiza Yakubu combined well to hand the Togolese an infamous defeat.
Serena Teluwo and Iye Onoja have been impressive since the commencement of the competition.
Onoja started the day with a 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 defeat of Talaki while Yakubu dismissed Grace with a 6-1, 3-6, 6-2 win. Onoja would later partner Teluwo to demolish the pair of Talaki and Dermane 7-6, 6-1 in another interesting game.
The U-16 also confirmed earlier report by Nigeria Tennis Live that they would play in the semis because the coach assured of a win for his players.
In the team event against Benin Republic, Nigeria easily won 3-0. Matthew Abamu beat Mariano 6-2, 6-2; Kushimo battled hard to hand Setome a 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 defeat while Abamu teamed up with Mukhtar to thrash Marano Bruce 6-4, 6-4 in the doubles. Mary Udoffa and Ekpeyong later worked together to ensure a 6-1, 6-3 win for Nigeria in the doubles.
The only dent on the results of the day was the Boys U-14 matches where Nigeria lost two and won only one of their matches.
Regular suspect, Ibrahim Suleiman wasted no time in bossing his game against Emmanuel with a 6-2, 6-3 win but his counterpart Maxwell could not withstand the firepower of Nahum, as he lost 0-6, 2-6. The nail on the coffin came for Nigeria when the duo of Suleiman and Mubarak lost the doubles to a dreadful combination of Nahum and Emmanuel. 6-2, 0-6, 10-7 it ended in favour of Benin.
The U-16 boys and girls are now targeting final berths as they take on Ghana and Cameroon respectively on Monday while the U-14 boys and girls wait until Tuesday before knowing which of the teams will come out tops in their round robin games.
Nigeria Tennis Live will keep up to date with the regular report on the latest development with the players and their qualification for the next phases of the competition out there in Togo.
