The top seeds at the on-going CBN Open Junior Tennis Championships were met with great difficulty as they fought their way through tough opponents to the semifinal round of the tournament.
In the Girl 16, top seeds, Rebecca Ekpenyong, Omolayo Bamidele, Omolade Aderemi and Favour Moses, had the biggest challenge of the day.
Mary Udofa from Kogi, who represented Nigeria in the African 14s Championship, went against tournament favorite, Ekpenyong, losing in two close sets.
Chidinma Ezeh who faced-off with Aderemi, lost the first set, before usurping control of the game in the second set.
However, she waned in the final set 10-7, 6-10, 10-4, giving Aderemi the semifinal go-ahead.
For Moses and Bamidele, the tough battles are yet to come, as both ladies easily breezed past their opponents into the semifinal.
The top two seeds in all four categories came out victorious in their group layoffs. David Dawariye of Rivers and Daniel Adeleye from Ekiti are expected to have a rematch of their Chevron Championship boys’ 16 finals.
The highly anticipated rematch between Seun ‘Nadal’ Ogunsakin and Mohammed Idris of Abuja will not take place anymore as Idris has moved up to the boys 14, where he conceded to Ganiyu Mubarak of Oyo State, losing 10-3, 10-12, 10-5.
The semifinal fixtures which will be done by ballot is expected to kickoff at 10.00a.m. at the National Stadium Tennis Centre, Lagos on May 3, with the final scheduled for the Lagos Lawn Tennis Club, Race Course on May 4.
Source: Guardian
Featured image source: Uncova