1st May, 2015
Damilare Okunola/Abuja
Nigeria’s Michael Moses was Thursday afternoon, knocked out of the ongoing Tombim Abuja ITF Futures by the superior firepower of Matija Pecotic in two straight sets of 6-2, 6-2.
The number four seeded Croatian spent a little more than one hour to dispatch the Nigerian hope of a Semifinal berth at the maiden edition of the tournament taking place at the Package B of the National Stadium, Abuja.
Also, Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan, the number one seed of the competition, lost to Keith-Patrick Crowley from South Africa 1-6, 6-3, 7-5, while the other South African in the tournament, Tucker Vorster, number two seed, lost 6-4, 1-6, 7-6 (5) to America’s Evan Song seeded five.
In the final single match decided this afternoon, Deiton Baughman knocked out Stanislav Korshunov in a really quick and one-sided encounter.
Friday’s Semifinal pairings will see Baughman take on Crowley while Song will seek to stop the superiority of Pecotic in the second Semifinal match of the day.
In the Semis of the Doubles event, Jeevan and Matija partnered to defeat the pair of Crowley and Song 3-6, 7-6(5), 10-4 to set up a final clash with top seeds for the doubles; Baughman and Eric Quigley, who both saw off Joe Cooper and Tucker 6-2, 6-3 in the other semi-final match decided this evening.
Meanwhile, Engr. Sani Ndanusa, President, Nigeria Tennis Federation, NTF has hailed the level of organisation put in place by the organisers of the tournament.
While congratulating the winners for their performances, he noted that it would be a pleasure to have more of such tournaments in the country to enable more Nigerians pick up valuable ATP points to be able to participate in other ITF Futures events.
“I have only landed this afternoon, but everything that I have heard and seen so far has been impressive. I am happy with what is happening here and I believe that we can get more tournaments with this new one.
“Our sponsors have made this possible and we truly appreciate their efforts as we hope to have more Futures of this magnitude in the country,” the former National Olympic Committee, NOC President, who just returned to the country, offered.