Tennis
Kenya Open starts with junior action
Memba Waitherero lines up a backhand return to Mona Musibega in the girls’ under-12 match of the KCB Open junior championships at the Nairobi Club on Saturday. Waitherero won 6-0, 6-0 . Photo/CHRIS OMOLLO
Posted Saturday, February 21 2009 at 19:25
In Summary
- Loreto Valley Road pupil Cheryl Fuasso one of those to make semi finals
Under-12 top seed Cheryl Fuasso withstood the scorching sun to beat Diana Nyawi 6-0, 6-1 on Saturday and reach the Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) Kenya Open tennis Championship at Nairobi Club.
The Loreto Convent Valley Road student was steady from the start as she forced her opponent to produce a steady stream of forehand errors.
“This was a very good match. I’ve decided to go all out this time round and win the title,” she said after the match.
Equally enthusiastic of her performance was her coach, Joe Karani.
Great players
“She has been performing quite well and I’m happy for her. She is one of my great players in my team who have been doing well in various tournaments,” said Karani.
On her serve for the match, Fuasso threw Nyawi an undeserved lifeline by double-faulting to give the ten year old hopes of a comeback.
Another break by Nyawi followed and what should have been an easy win suddenly turned into a more intriguing encounter.
But Fuasso was the more polished player as she ran to a 6-0 first set advantage.
On resumption for the second set, it was a situation all too familiar for Fuasso, who was knocked out of last year’s Kenya Open finals by Damaris Musera, going down 6-1, 6-2 to miss the under-14 title.
She said she could not stop thinking about how things had slipped away from her that day.
Nyawi was unable to hang on the life line thrown by Fuasso’s double fault on match serve and started producing the type of unforced errors that had riddled her play in the first dozen games.
The 10 year-old Fuasso stormed to a 4-0 lead early in the set and finally wrapped up the match with a scorching forehand crosscourt winner to make it to the last-four.
Selected results:
Boys under-10: Karan Raikundalia bt. Albert Njogu 6-0, 6-2, Rishabh Sevak bt. Ahil Saleh 6-0, 6-2. Under-12: Reuben Njuguna bt. Rooney Wandeti 6-3, 6-4, Jordan Muthomi bt. Gulam Omar 6-0, 6-0 and Himanish Patel bt. Peter Ngatia 5-7, 6-2 and 10-3. Girls under-10: Elaine Okondo bt. Mona Musibega 6-1, 6-0 and Tayo Adetunji bt. Riya Kantaria 6-0, 6-3. Under-12: Memba Waitherero bt. Mona Musibega 6-0, 6-0, Njeri Imara bt. Nankiran Gharial 6-0, 6-0, Rebecca Ngure bt. Mercy Mijide 6-0, 6-0 and Melisa Gachui bt. Celine Sabwa 6-1, 6-0.
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