Stavanger ITF: Abayomi, Jebutu Land In Norway, Battle Serious Cold Ahead Of First Round Draws
Nigeria Tennis Live can authoritatively report that Abayomi Phillips and Emmanuel Jebutu have safely landed in Norway ahead of the Junior ITF tournament in Stavanger.
The youngsters departed the shores of Nigeria on Friday, 22 November, and touched down in Oslo on Saturday morning before taking a connecting flight to Stavanger where the tournament is taking place.
Coach Dominic who took the guys there revealed that the youngsters were battle ready for the competition in spite of the extremely cold situation in the European country.
Phillips, ranked 476 in the world will have to play a qualifying match on Sunday to be part of the main draw on Monday while Jebutu got a wild card to play in the main draws already.
As at the time of filing this report, the qualifying match had yet to start, but feelers from Norway have it that the Nigerian youngster is coping fine with the weather situation.
“It’s an indoor court, but it’s still quite cold. That notwithstanding, I believe the boys are ready for this.
“Abayo is playing the qualifiers this morning and I am sure that in spite of the cold, he will do well,” an upbeat Coach Dominic stated.
On why the Nigerian youngster, in spite of his raking, is playing a qualifier, the coach explained that he didn’t enter for the competition online.
He said: “Only Emma got the wild card so he’s not playing the qualifiers. We didn’t register online, that’s why we’re playing the qualifiers.
“But we’ll pull through.”
Nigeria Tennis Live will continue monitoring the players’ progress in Norway as they continue with their tour of Europe.