Marylove, Osewa, Moses reach SNEPCo Junior Tennis semis
U@shagcy
nheralded Favour Moses from the NNPC Kaduna justified the ‘most outstanding player’ award she bagged at the CBN Open Junior Championships two weeks ago by eliminating, Omolade Aderemi, the No.3 seed in the Girls 16 event 8-5 to qualify for the semifinals of the ongoing SNEPCo Junior Tennis Championship in Lagos.
Moses, who won the award despite losing in the quarter-finals, had made very convincing progress through the earlier rounds of this championship, capping it up with a semi-final berth. She now has the uphill task of beating second seed Angel Mcleod who eliminated Jumai Mohammed 8-1 to qualify for the finals.
“I am very happy I won this match because after I won the award at the CBN tournament I worked harder not to disappoint myself. Also, because Mr. Musa (AhmaduKida) told me he was going to start sponsoring me and helping me become a great player. So I have to train hard to justify everything,” the soft spoken Moses said.
The other semi-final will be between top seed Marylove Edwards and Toyin Asogba. Edwards defeated Peace Bagbenro 8-0, while Asogba defeated Omolayo Bamidele 8-6.
In the boys’ 18, Ezekiel Ekong did credit to the ITA Junior Circuit programme when he eliminated Adekya Kaftkarren, the lone foreign entry from India 8-2. Ekong will meet No.1 seed Michael Osewa who also beat Benjamin Otube 8-2 in the other quarter-final game.
Once again, the Port Harcourt based Kodian Tennis Foundation which produced the finalists in the Girls 14s two weeks ago is dominating the event again with three of their players in the semifinals.
Timipre Maxwell, the No.1 seed, will meet team mate Ngowari Jim-Jaja in one semifinal while second seed Rebecca Ekpeyong from the foundation will take on Hamidat Abdulrazak in the other.
The week-long tournament is featuring singles competitions in five age categories - boys and girls 10 & under, 12 & under, 14 & under, 16 & under and 18 & under.
The grand finale will take place tomorrow at the Lagos Lawn Tennis Club, Race Course at noon.