Sheil Kotecha bites the dust at Nairobi Club
Kenya's Sheil Kotecha reacts during the Junior 18 CAT/ITF tournament semi-final match against George Loffhhagen of Great Britain at Nairobi club on December 2, 2016. Loffhhagen won 6-2, 6-7 (3) 6-1. PHOTO | MARTIN MUKANGU |
What you need to know:
- The top seed lost 2-6, 7-6(3), 1-6 to tenth seed George Loffhagen of Great Britain in the boys’ singles semi-finals, ending his hopes of making it to another final.
- The competition ends Saturday with the third and final leg set to commence on Sunday.
Defending champion Sheil Kotecha of Kenya was Friday eliminated from the second leg of the International Tennis Federation (ITF) East African Junior Circuit Under-18 tournament.
The top seed lost 2-6, 7-6(3), 1-6 to tenth seed George Loffhagen of Great Britain in the boys’ singles semi-finals, ending his hopes of making it to another final.
It was a crushing defeat for the home player, who has been on a good run that saw him clinch is maiden ITF title last Saturday and appeared to suffer from fatigue after he was put the sword in 1 hour, 45 minutes.
“It was a draining match and I gave my all which unfortunately was not enough. I think I made a lot of poor decisions today and got punished,” a disappointed Kotecha told Saturday Nation Sport.
“I have a few days to recover and come back for the third leg. Hopefully, I can bounce back and finish my season by winning the final leg.”
On paper, it looked as if the Kenyan would cruise but the hard hitting Briton deserved victory after stretching the Kenyan to take the opening set, dropping only two matches.
Kotecha rallied to claim the second set that went to a tie break after both players saved and also lost match points.
The Kenyan would win the tie match of the tie break to level the score and take the contest to a third set. But the energy he had used to break down his opponent appeared to have gone down as Loffhagen completely outplayed him in the final set, dropping only one match on his way to victory.
The Briton will take on Italian Lorenzo Rottoli in Saturday’s final after the latter beat Kai Maxted of Great Britain 6-0, 6-2 in their last four encounter.
In the girls’ final, top seed Celestine Avomo Ella of Gabon will tackle Ukrainian Valeriya Rozenkova in the final.
Ella saw off Laura Claudia Van der Merwe of South Africa 7-6(4), 6-1 as Rozenkova’s semi-final opponent Daevenia Achong retired in the second set of their semi-final clash, having lost the opening set 6-1.
The competition ends Saturday with the third and final leg set to commence on Sunday.
