Many hearts were on Tuesday, 16 May, broken as all the Nigerian players remaining in the GSL Tennis Open were dumped out of the tournament, but not before putting up spirited performances in Abuja, Nigeria’s federal capital.
Clifford Enosoregbe and Sylvester Emmanuel were particularly impressive in their matches against Hossam Karim and Durasovic Viktor from Egypt and Norway respectively, as both players slugged it out until the final sets before giving up.
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| Sylvester may have been disappointed after failing to make it to the second round of the GSL Open, but the player gave a very good account of himself. Photo: Ewaoche Ameh. |
This follows from Monday’s exit of four Nigerian players participating at the tournament making its debut this year.
Enosoregbe gallantly lost to a vastly experienced Karim in a 6-3, 3-6, 2-6 game while Sylvester had to bow out by a similar margin after battling Viktor for close to two hours inside the Court 1 arena of the Tennis Section at the National Stadium, Abuja.
Imeh Joseph was also not lucky in his match against number eight seed, Takanyi Garanganga, as the Nigerian youngster tasted defeat in two straight sets of 7-6(4), 6-3 after stretching the Zimbabwean star for over one and a half hours.
The performances of the Nigerian players also confirmed their improvement over the course of the past few weeks since the commencement of the three-legged ITF Futures in the country.
Nigerians will now drum support for Calvin Hemery, the French-Nigerian who is the number one seed of the money-spinning ITF tournament as he holds the only hope of having a ‘Nigerian’ advance in the tournament.