Team Nigeria shines at ITF/CAT Junior C’ships

Team Nigeria underlined an intention for a memorable outing at the 39th ITF/CAT African Junior Championships taking place in Pretoria, South Africa with five of the seven players in action on Saturday bagging impressive wins.
The duo of Gabriel Friday and Barakat Quadri progressed to the last 16 following wins over Assil Boussairy of Morocco and Finatrina Andriamadison of Madagascar.
Sixth-seeded Gabriel, who defeated Cameroun’s Paul Wamba 6-2, 6-3 in his first match in the boys 14&under battled hard to beat Boussairy 7-6, 6-4 while Quadri made light work of Andriamadison 6-2, 6-2 in the girls 14&under.
Other Nigerians that bagged impressive wins on Saturday are Christopher Itodo, who defeated Fabrice Toyishime of Rwanda 6-4, 6-4 in the boys 16&under, while Christopher Bulus also brusshed aside Shaun Adriamaro of Seychelles 6-2 6-0 in the same category.
Michael Osewa also enhanced his chances of progressing to the knockout stage in the boys 14&under by beating Salum Mutabazi of Burundi 6-2 , 6-3.
As it stands, Itodo, Bulus and Osewa all need to win their final group matches to qualify to the last 16.
However two Nigerians were forced to swallow the bitter pill of defeats as Marylove Edward and Adetayo Adetunji stumbled 6-2, 6-3 and 6-0, 6-0 against Makayla Lousber and Corin De Waal both of South Africa.
Gabriel and Osewa paired to beat Rushdi/Joseph Cyzia of Sudan 6-1, 6-1 to berth to the quarterfinals of the doubles while Itodo/Bulus will confront Philip Henning and Thando Longwe-Smit of South Africa.
“It was a very good day for Nigeria; most of our players were very impressive in their matches especially Gabriel who played top-class tennis to beat the Moroccan. Even the ITF team are very impressed by his performance,” Nigeria’s coach Mohammed Ubale stated.