Tunisia 2015 AJC: Nigeria Qualify For Doubles Quarterfinals

Nigeria has qualified for the quarterfinal of the girls’ U14 doubles at the ongoing 38th ITF/CAT African Junior Tennis Championship in Tunisia as the pair of Oyinlomo Quadri and Charity Patrick defeated Evelyn Kwizora of Rwanda and Jackline Kayuga of Tanzania 6-0, 6-1.

The Nigerians went into the match in contrasting mood with Qaudri advancing to the next round of the girls’ U14 singles while Patrick was defeated by Kermene Kpadonou of Benin Republic in the first round of the singles.

However, they were able to put their acts together with an impressive display to set up a quarterfinal clash with Moroccoan duo of Hiba El kalifi and Oumaima Aziz who were drawn bye.

However, the feat achieved by Quadri and Patrick could not be matched by Ayoola Micheal and Michael Oshewa as they were defeated by Algeria’s Mohamed Rahim and Youcef Rihane 6-3, 7-5.

In some of the first round matches involving Nigerian players, Angel Macleod will battle No 4 seed, Zani Barnard of South Africa while in the Boys’ U16, Martins Abamu will also meet Mohamed Aziz Ouakaa of Tunisia with the winner going on to face Mohamed Ghshuot of Libya in the quarterfinal.

Nigeria’s coach Mohammed Ubale had predicted a very tough tournament for the Nigerian players who have consistently dominated the West & Central African zone due to the high quality of players from countries like South Africa, Zimbabwe, Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt among others.

Tunisia 2015 AJC: Nigerian Players Beat Algerian, Tunisian Opponents

Nigerian players began their chase for a continental glory on a good note by posting impressive results on going 38th ITF/CAT African Junior Tennis Championship (AJC) in Tunisia as Oyinlomo Quadri and Adetayo Adetunji advanced to the next round with wins on Monday at the clay court tournament.

In the girls’ U14, Quadri defeated Nesrine Troubia of Algeria as she came from a set down to win 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 while Adetayo Adetunji held her composure to beat Emma Fahmia of Tunisia 6-3 , 6-4 despite the tremendous support enjoyed by her opponent who was playing before a home crowd. Nigeria was however made to taste a pill of defeat as Ayoola Michael lost to an Egyptian opponent in the boys’ U14.

Nigerian players had put up an average display in the traditional warm up tournament which was concluded last weekend with Nigeria’s Michael Osewa being the only player from West Africa that got to quarterfinals at the Warm Up tournament.

But it was a different story entirely when the tournament proper gets underway as the Nigerian players were in top form to send shivers down the spines of their counterparts from the other participating countries.

Martins Abamu, Godsgift Timibra, Angel MacLeod and Charity Patrick will all be in action on Tuesday at the tournament featuring 32 countries.

Nigeria’s coach, Mohammed Ubale expressed optimism that the country can put up a memorable performance to justify their ranking as the best team from the West & Central African Zone which the country won in January to lead the Zone to the tournament with eight players which is the highest from any of the Zones.
.