Tesese Ahenjir ensured she came out tops at the inaugural Invitational Tennis Competition for Private Schools in Lagos held in Lekki, Lagos.
The seven-year-old multi-talented tennis player from Green Springs school got the better of Grace Ebadan, the Chalcedony School player, in a 7-2 game.
She played the red ball event during the competition hosted by the Italian International School, Lekki on Friday, 24 November, 2023 and was rightly adjudged the winner after taking out all her opponents.
Emerging youngster, Abdul-Maleek Salau was also outstanding in his matches on Friday, winning against all his opponents to emerge as the ultimate winner of the boys’ red ball event.
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The Wadfat Private School student defeated Chinonso Ajaelo from Chalcedony School 7-5, to win the competition in his category.
Nigeria’s Under-10 champion, Mofifunoluwa Atilola, was at her beastly best when she took on Tiffany Osho in the girls finale which ended in her favour.
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The pair, who have been deemed rivals in the junior cadre of junior girls tennis, had some good spells during the game, giving the spectators a beautiful show.
Despite their beautiful rallies during the match, Mofifunoluwa won the finale 9-3, a scoreline which does not totally reflect the quality of tennis they displayed on Friday afternoon.
Tesese’s brother, Tertema, also had an outstanding game in his boys’ singles final match against a formidable opponent, Mohammed Okandeji.
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The final had been delicately poised to favour the older Ahenjir as he was already leading 6-3 in the short set, and with just three games to go, he threw caution to the win and allowed the rampaging Okandeji back into the game.
And when he was also leading 8-6, he was unlucky not to have wrapped up the game against his extremely determined opponent, allowing him back into the game to set up a terse finale inside the tennis section of the Italian International School.
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Eventually, Tertema defeated Mohammed 14-12 as the spectators burst into cheers time and again as the game wore on. It was a befitting finale for the competition.
The one-day event, which is in its inaugural year, was organized by the HST Academy in conjunction with the Italian International School, Lekki, and had over 100 students in attendance from about ten schools scattered across Lagos State.
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