Tennis: Abdullahi Trains Team Nigeria Junior Players In US

Two Team Nigeria junior players had their games polished with the latest techniques in tennis by former Nigerian tennis star, Sadiq Abdullahi as Nigeria continues its quest to unleash future tennis superstars.

The duo of Toyin Asogba and Venus Ubiebi were drilled for a week by Abdullahi at the Ricc Macci Tennis Academy, Boca Raton, Florida. The players also took some coaching tips from Abdul Adi, a former Nigerian player who is an academy coach in the United States at his base in Bradenton, Miami.

Ubiebi, a Ricc Macci coach, Asogba, Venus and Abdullahi

The week-long training tour, was facilitated by Aces Tennis Services.

Nigeria junior tennis assistant coach Abel Ubiebi also benefited from the tour after sessions with a couple of top junior coaches in the US. “It was a wonderful and unforgettable experience for me as well as the players. We were exposed to so many things which would help in the development of tennis particularly from the aspect of coaching.

“We had good discussion and ideas on developing tennis in Nigeria,” expressed Ubiebi, who alongside Stella Epego were part of the coaching staff of Team Nigeria at the 2016 West & Central African qualifiers for the African Junior Championship in Abuja last January.

Asogba was a silver medalist at the 2015 African Junior Circuit held in Lome Togo and also featured at the 2016 West & Central African Championship qualifier where she lost to Angel McLeod in the quarterfinal to miss out of the recently held 39th ITF/CAT African Junior Championships in Pretoria, South Africa.

Abdulahi with Asogba and Venus

Venus on her part failed to make the final 16-man team from the 32 players that were invited to camp.

Alongside Nduka Odizor, David Imonitie and Tony Nmoh; Abdullahi put Nigeria’s name on the global map of tennis in the 80’s through the early 90’s. He represented Nigeria at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul. The right-hander reached his highest singles ATP-ranking on October 14, 1985, when he became the number 262 of the world.

Togo 2015 ITF/CAT C’ship:Nigeria’s Quadre Causes Upsets, Moves Into Semis

Oyinlomo Quadre maintained her impressive form at the ongoing ITF/CAT African Junior U16 Championship holding in Togo by beating Grace Bougre of Cote d’Ivoire 6-2, 6-0 to move into the quarterfinal of the girls U14 of the five nation tournament.

Quadre, who on Wednesday took gold in the first phase of the girls U12 singles, showed no stage fright as she defeated her much older opponent hitting series of winners as the concluding phase of the tournament gets underway at the Stade Omnisports, Lome on Thursday.

Although she is still eligible to play in the U12, Quadre was entered for the U14 in order to make more points which would see her making it to the forthcoming Africa Junior Championship Masters later this year.

However, Quadre was to taste defeat moments later when her tag with Venus Ubiebi lost to Chelsea Agaounga and Carmene Kpadonou of Benin in the doubles of the U14. Ubiebi had earlier lost to Kpadonou in the U14 singles.

A mixed day of fortunes for Nigeria saw Toyin Asogba defeating Grace Sapoude of Cote d’Ivoire 6-2, 6-2 in the girls U12 singles while in the boys’ singles, Mathew Abamu defeated Alexandre Santos of Benin 6-1, 6-0.

Asogba who paired with Quadre in the girls’ U12 doubles in the first phase, is in line for another doubles’ gold as she partnered Sadjo Coulibaly of Cote d’Ivoire to beat Ivorian duo of Sapoude and Minet Linbell 6-1, 6-0 to qualify for the semifinal.

Nigeria’s coach Abel Ubeibi lauded the performance of the Nigerian players declaring that the team are aiming to better their performance in the first phase where Nigeria won three gold medals.