Nigeria’s Micheal Osewa on Thursday, reached the final of the boy’s 14&under event at the 39th ITF/CAT African Junior Championships in Pretoria, South Africa with a 4-6, 6-4, 6-2 win over Ryan Randiek of Kenya.
The semifinal clash at the University of Pretoria High Performance Centre saw the two players going head-to-head for the second year running with Osewa outplaying his East African rival with a 6-2, 6-3 triumph at the quarterfinal stage of the tournament held in Tunisia in 2015.
The match was going with the serves until the ninth game when Randiek broke the Nigerian before sealing the set 6-4 on his serve. Nigeria’s coach Mohammed Ubale had expressed worries over Osewa’s inability to win the opening game which he pointed puts him under pressure but just like he did in the round of 16 clash against the number one seed Younes Adnan of Morocco and Jason Espitalier of Mauritius in the quarterfinal, Osewa kept his composure to level the match by winning the second set 6-4 to force the game into a rubber decider which he won 6-2. He will now meet Damien Laporte of Seychelles, who defeated South Africa’s Khololwam Montsi in Friday’s final.
An elated President of the Nigeria Tennis Federation (NTF) Sani Ndanusa, who watched the match alongside several other federation bosses who are in Pretoria for the Annual General Meeting of the Confederation of African Tennis (CAT), said Osewa’s feat has helped break the jinx of players from North Africa who have always proved a barrier to Nigeria’s quest to rule Africa.
Osewa was stopped by Morocco’s Ismaal Saadi at this stage last year while Nigeria’s best outing in recent years was in 2012 when Candy Idoko finished third in Botswana after losing to a Tunisian in the semifinal.
Osewa is also in the run for the doubles title where he is pairing Gabriel Friday. There semifinal clash with opponents from South Africa was put on hold due to rain.
About 120 players from 25 countries are featuring in the 11-day tournament. The event which is in four categories is the biggest junior tennis tournament in Africa.
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