Nigerian tennis starlets put up a commanding performance to emerge the overall winners of the ITF/CAT U16 Championship which was concluded at the weekend in Togo. Team Nigeria took home seven gold medals and one bronze medal at the tennis tournament.
Oyinlomo Quadri grabbed the headlines as the star player of the tournament, upsetting three top-seeded opponents en route Gold in the U14 girls’ singles category. She defeated number one seed, Kaita Aishata of Mali 6-1, 6-1 in the semi-final, before producing an emphatic 6-1, 6-0 win over Carmene Kpadonou of Benin in Saturday’s final at the Stade Omnisports, Lome. Quadri – who is still eligible to play in the U12s – was registered for the U14s in order to gain more points that would enable her play in the African Junior Championship Masters billed for Morocco later in the year.
Her compatriots, Mathew Abamu and Toyin Asogba also excelled in the boys’ and girls’ U12 defeating Suleiman Quattara of Cote d’Ivoire and Patricia Wamba of Cameroon 6-2, 6-1 and 6-3,3-6, 6-4 respectively.
The tournament which lasted for a week, featured five countries.
In another related news, Nigeria U18 tennis team are hoping to replicate the achievements of their younger compatriots as the ITF/CAT U18 Championship kicks off in Cairo, Egypt on Monday.
Team Nigeria has penciled down a strong line up for the tournament highlighted by the highly-rated Russian-born Melissa Ifidzhen. The 16 year old former Russian U12 champion will be making her debut for Nigeria at the tournament.
Other members of the team are London-based Elizabeth Garos-Pam, South African-based Adetayo Adetunji, Angel Macloed and Sunday Emmanuel. The team will be led by Coach Mohammed Ubale at the tournament which will have more than 20 countries in attendance.
