Russia’s and tournament’s number two seed, Nina Bratchkova, was on Wednesday bundled out of the Future 1 of the ongoing Lagos Governor’s Cup Tennis tournament by relatively unknown Italian, Giola Barbieri, who won the game in two straight sets of 6-4, 6-2.
In a similar fashion, India’s Prathana Thombare also recorded a major upset as she sent packing tournament’s number three seed, Eva Birnerova, from Czech Republic, 6-1, 6-2.
Meanwhile, the remaining Nigerian players in the tournament have crashed out in second round as number one seed, Hiroki Kondo, from Japan, defeated Clifford Enosoregbe 6-3, 6-3; and Borna Coric from Croatia dismissed Christian Paul 6-0, 6-0.
Another Nigerian, Sanni Adamu, was taught some tennis lesson as he lost to number three seed, Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan, from India, by 6-2,6-3.
Mithun Murali, also from India, threshed Joseph Umeh 6-4,4-6,6-0.
In the women’s doubles, Giola Barbieri of Italy and Anna Morgina of Russia beat Ronke Akingbade and Blessing Anuna 6-2, 6-0.
The Nigerian Tennis Federation Chief Coach, Ishicheli Benson, expressed disappointments over the dismal outing of the Nigerian players.
Benson said: “It has been the same old story.
“I particularly feel bad because the NTF and the LOC called the players for camping but the senior ones failed to turn up, giving unnecessary excuses.
“You can see that those junior players that came for the camping performed very well with some of them fighting their ways from the qualifying round to the second round on Wednesday.
“It is so sad, even with the promises of the LOC and the sponsors to sponsor any player who performs very well to outside circuits, these players failed to up their game when it matters most.”
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