Emmanuel Jebutu was the biggest flop at the ongoing Junior ITF Tennis Circuit presently going on in Accra, Ghana.
The Nigerian is the tournament’s number two seed, and was unable to withstand his opponent’s firepower, falling flat in the final set.
Jebutu, who went on a tour of Europe in 2019, clearly struggled against Prince Gandonou, his unseeded opponent, as the match ended 7-6 (5), 3-6, 6-0 in favour of the Beninoise.
Also, checks by Nigeria Tennis Live revealed that the pre-tournament favorite and number two seed, Marylove Edwards, was missing in action, as she did not feature on the match day fixtures.
The top 500 junior had lost her bid for a place in the tournament’s semis having lost her quarterfinal tie against an unseeded Romanian in two straight sets.
Feelers are that the youngster may have returned to Nigeria to play at the ongoing National Sports Festival in Edo State, but this has not been confirmed.
Meanwhile, Rebecca Ekpenyong, Canice Abua and David Dawariye are the other Nigerians still competing in Accra.
They are all yet to play their first round matches in the Grade 5 Junior ITF Tennis Circuit.
Abua, the tournament’s number five seed takes on Haitam Aboufirassi from Canada, while Dawariye will battle Samuel Nyamekye from Ghana, for a place in the second round.
In the girls’ event, Ekpenyong tackles Mia Liepert, the number six seed from Australia, to advance to the next stage of the competition, having also fallen short in the first leg of the Accra tournament.
The Nigerian players in the competition have not been totally impressive since the first leg of the event kicked off, but they will be looking to better their fortunes in the new week.
Nigeria Tennis Live will keep monitoring their performance in the competition, and report to our audience.