Two 14 year-olds – Serena Teluwo from Lagos and Chidinma Ezeh from Anambra – who are stepping up to play in the 16 age group showed outstanding skill and promise yesterday in their second round-robin match against the second and third seeds respectively at the Chevron Junior Tennis Invitational Masters taking place at the Lagos Lawn Tennis Club.
Teluwo, who blew a 7-2 lead against Peace Obabori in her first round-robin match eventually losing 8-9, came back really focused and determined against Omolade Aderemi, the second seed in the Girls 16 but still went down 6-9 in the pro-set match.
Ezeh also pushed the third seed, Favour Moses from Kaduna, hard. The emerging star from Onitsha broke the hard-hitting Moses twice at the beginning but failed to convert her game points to consolidate her lead. Her opponent eventually found her range to win the match 9-5.
In other round-robin matches, the number one seed in the Boys 16s, Seun ‘Nadal’ Ogunsakin, has one leg in the semifinals with easy victories over Mohamed Idris of Abuja 9-2 and Praise Ikueba of Rivers State 9-3.
The second seed, Precious Ikueba, twin brother of Praise, is also on course for the semifinals with hard-fought wins against Emmanuel Ameh of Lagos 9-5 and Lucky Danjuma of Abuja 9-6.
The round-robin matches are to be completed today with semifinal matches taking place on Saturday. The grand finale will follow on Sunday starting at 13.00 hrs.
The Chevron Junior Tennis Invitational Masters taking place at the Lagos Lawn Tennis Club, Race Course is being organised by the International Tennis Academy.
