Nigeria’s Adetayo Adetunji has won the girls’ singles of the International Tennis Federation (ITF) Under-18 Junior Tennis Circuit which ended in the Benin Republic on Saturday.
Adetuji secured the title after defeating Linda Elounde of Cameroon 6-4, 6-1.
The 17-year-old Adetunji, who is based in South Africa, outclassed Elounde, justifying her reaching the quarter-finals at this year’s Commonwealth Youth Games in Bahamas last July.
Nigeria was however denied a double shot at the title as Christopher Bulus was edged 6-4, 6-4 by Delmas Ntcha of the Benin Republic in the boy’s semi-finals.
Also, Nigeria’s Oyinlomo Barakat Quadri, who was making her debut at this level, didn’t have preferred outing as her partnership with Adetunji finished second best to Alexandra Antilla and Doroteja Joksovic 3-6, 6-2, 10-8 in the girls’ doubles.
It was the same story for the Ireland-based Bola Obasoto, who partnered Moroccan Azeez Hehali, as they stumbled to a 4-6, 6-1, 6-10 loss to Ntcha and Sylvester Moumonu.
Meanwhile, the Nigerian team has now moved to Lome, Togo for the second and third legs of the tournament featuring over 80 players from 24 countries across the world.
Assistant National Junior coach, Abel Ubiebi, who is leading the delegation, expressed satisfaction with the overall performance of the team promising that the lapses noticed in their performance will be fixed.
“We are ending this first leg mentally stronger and this is what we need to start the second leg in Togo,” Ubiebi said.
