21st October, 2013
Damilare Okunola
Nigerian tennis players at the second leg of the ongoing Governor’s Cup Lagos Tennis Championship, faced early exits from the tournament in a repeat of what happened in the first leg.
The matches which were delayed due to early downpour on Lagos Island Monday, began about two hours behind schedule.
Sanni Adamu was the first casualty among the Nigerian players as he lost to fellow Nigerian, Shehu Lawal 4-6,1-6 in what could be described as a rematch of their first leg encounter.
Nigeria’s Kehinde Alade made a bold statement by defeating Ivorian Sylvain Anibie 6-0,6-7, 6-0 in a tense encounter, as Theophile Segodo of Benin ousted Henry Atseye 7-5,4-6,6-4 in a keenly contested match.
In other results involving Nigerian players, Christian Paul of Nigeria had to retire his game against German player, David Chaplefash Forchap due to injury despite leading the tie at 7-5,4-4.
Clifford Enosoregbe of Nigeria looked set to create an unlikely upset when he took on Men’s number two seed, Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan from India but lost 4-6,5-7 in a match which drew applause from the teeming fans at the Lagos Lawn Tennis Club, Onikan.
A disappointed Enosoregbe told P.M. NEWS Sports after the encounter that he never expected to lose the match when he was 4-1 up in the second set.
He maintained that his mistakes cost him the match but vowed to work harder in subsequent games.
“I need to work hard because I would have easily won the second set but for the silly mistakes that I made. It just shows that some things are still missing in my game,” the All Africa Games’ gold medallist said.
In the women’s singles, top seed, Nina Bratchikova of Russia walloped US-based Nigerian Idia Amen 6-0,6-1 just as Russian Margarita Lazareva sent Nigeria’s Ronke Akingbade packing by the same margin.
.Photos by Emmanuel Osodi