Russian-born Melissa Ifidzhen recorded a winning debut for Nigeria after she teamed up with London-based Elizabeth Garos-Pam to beat Algerian duo of Saadia Belhadj and Sihem Sahli in the girls’ doubles of the 38th ITF/CAT African Closed Junior Championship holding in Cairo, Egypt.
Both players – who were accompanied by their fathers to the tournament – exhibited great composure and swept their North African counterparts aside 6-0, 6-3 in less than an hour in the first round tie.
Meanwhile, Ifidzhen has already been guaranteed a place in the second round of the singles tournament due to her point haul on the ITF junior rankings.
She is billed to face South African Lee Benard, who was also drawn for a place in the third. However, Garos-Pam has crashed out of the singles event after she lost narrowly to Mariam Mujawimana of Burundi 7-6 (6), 6-3 in a close contest.
The President of Nigeria Tennis Federation, NTF, Sani Ndanusa stated that “Melissa is still being referred to as a Russian player but we have written to the ITF through her father to effect the change which should be done soon. We experienced the same problem when Garos-Pam started playing for us as she was seen as a British player but it was rectified later.”
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