Kenyans tower over Chinese duo to storm final
Kenya’s Albert Njogu returns a serve to Abdoulshakur Kabura of Burundi during the final of their boys’ singles 16 and under of the East African Junior Tennis Championships at Nairobi Club on January 16, 2016. Njogu and Olivier Kigotho advanced to the final of the boys’ doubles in the ITF Kenya International Junior Championship at Nairobi Club on February 4, 2016. PHOTO | MARTIN MUKANGU |
What you need to know:
- Kigotho and Njogu make light work of opponents to storm doubles final
- It was a bad day for the Kenyan who also lost in the doubles alongside Ethiopia’s Antoine Gbadoe.
- The East Africans went down 0-6, 1-6 to Youssef Hossam of Egypt and Great Britain’s Alexis Canter.
Kenya’s Olivier Kigotho and Albert Njogu cruised to the final of the International Tennis Federation (ITF) Kenya International Junior Championship boys’ doubles event.
They beat Chinese brothers Kai-Hsun Chen and Ying-Ze Chen 6-2, 6-0 in the semi-finals at Nairobi Club on Thursday.
It was Kenya’s best performance in the championship so far. The duo appears set for the country’s first win as the week-long competition comes to a close on Friday.
Kigotho and Njogu defeated Ryan Randiek of Kenya and Morocco’s Elyes Marouani 7-6(7) 6-4 in the quarter-finals to set up the clash with the Chinese siblings.
“It was one of our best performances over the last two weeks. We were confident. We made very few mistakes, giving us an edge over our opponents,” Kigotho told Daily Nation Sport.
The Kenyans barely broke sweat during the 58-minute match. They broke their opponents several times. The home boys raced to a 2-1 lead in the first set. Njogu’s serve distabilised the visitors.
The pair broke the Chinese in the eighth match to clinch the first set after half an hour to the delight of fans. The second set was one-sided, the Kenyans dominated as the brothers struggled with their service and reception.
Njogu said their games has improved and exuded confidence of victory in the final.
“It was a great match, they (Chen brothers) were good opponents but our performance was better,” said Njogu said.
Kenyan players have performed dismally over the last two weeks and have failed to advance past the quarter-finals.
In the girls’ singles, second seed Adithya Karunaratne of Sri Lanka beat Zara Lennon of Mauritius 6-3, 6-3 in the first semi-final while top seed Draginja Vukovic of Serbia defeated Canadian Samar Qaedizadeh 6-1, 6-4 in the other semi.
Elsewhere in Tunisia, Kenya’s top seeded junior player Kevin Cheruiyot was eliminated in the second round of the Grade 2 ITF junior championship. He lost 4-6, 5-7 to Max Stewart of Britain in the second round singles.
It was a bad day for the Kenyan who also lost in the doubles alongside Ethiopia’s Antoine Gbadoe. The East Africans went down 0-6, 1-6 to Youssef Hossam of Egypt and Great Britain’s Alexis Canter.
