Russian-born Melissa Ifidzhen continued her impressive outing at the 37th Central Bank of Nigeria Tennis Championship in Lagos by beating Beauty Mcleod to book her place in the women’s singles final where she will meet defending champions and top seed Christy Agugbom.
Ifidzhen, a debutante and a wild card beneficiary produced a scintillating performance and now has Agugbom, who was fortunate to qualify at the expense of Aanu Aiyegbusi Ayegbusi had played relatively tougher opponents in the women’s singles won the first set was forced to retire after an injury in the second set.
Melissa, who is scheduled to head to her hometown in Edo before jetting out to her base in Moscow on Wednesday, is hoping to go a step better than Elizabeth Garos-Pam who reached the women’s final last year where incidentally she lost to Agugbom.
In the men’s singles, defending champion, Abdulmimuni Babalola crashed to Moses Michael to set up a final match with Thomas Otu who defeated top seed, Clifford Enosoregbe.
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The final which comes up today at the National Stadium Surulere will be graced by top CBN officials as well as Nigeria Tennis Federation members headed by Engr. Sani Ndanusa.
The champions in the men and women singles will get N700, 000 while the finalists will pocket N500, 000.
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