Tough outing for Kenyan players as they all tumble out
Kenya's Olivier Kigotho plays against Antoine Gbadoe of Togo during the boys singles at the 5th International Junior Championships at Nairobi Club on January 27, 2016. Antoine won 7/5, 6/2. PHOTO | MARTIN MUKANGU |
What you need to know:
- Quarter-final match ups an all-foreign affair at Nairobi Club
- Last hope for hosts Kigotho goes down to Togolese player in hard-fought round
Kenya’s hopes of winning the International Tennis Federation (ITF) 2016 East African Under-18 junior circuit went up in smoke Wednesday after the last remaining home player Olivier Kigotho was eliminated from the tournament.
Sixteenth seed Kigotho went down 5-7, 2-6 to third seed Antoine Gbadoe of Togo in a third round boys’ encounter at the Nairobi Club to cap another disappointing week for home players in the second leg of the circuit.
Kigotho advanced to third round after his opponent in the second round, Ismail Saadi of Morocco, retired with the Kenyan leading 2-0 in the first set. The Kenyan had received a bye to the first round along with the other 15 seeded players.
The home player started the first set well taking the first game after breaking his opponent with a brilliant backhand play.
RALLIED TO LEVEL
However, Gbadoe rallied to level bringing the score to 2-2. The Togolese went ahead 4-2 after breaking Kigotho with some powerful serves.
However, the Kenyan once again powered to level at 4-4.
Both players exchanged serves before the third seed broke clear to take a 5-4 lead, but Kigotho levelled once again in the pulsating encounter. Kigotho was however undone by a number of faults and the Togolese capitalised to move further ahead before taking the set in an hour.
The seconds set was rather straight forward as Kigotho appeared to suffer under the scorching sun and Gbadoe dominated to sail into the quarter-finals.
Kigotho was pleased with his performance despite the defeat noting that home players will get better with more tournaments.
“I started well but was unable to maintain the momentum,” Kigotho said.
“The many faults did not help my game and it proved to be the difference. But I believe we are improving with each leg.”
It was also disappointment for home players in the doubles event as Kenya’s Sneha Kotecha partnering with Lisa Marie Lauesecker of Austria lost 2-6, 4-6 to Mariam Mujawimana of Burundi and Gabon’s Celestin Avomo Ella in a girls’ second round doubles event.
In other third round boys’ results, Zlatan Palazov of Bulgaria upset top seed Joshua Howard Tripp of South Africa 6-1, 6-2, Ying- Ze Chen of Taiwan beat Ethiopia’s Abdella Nedim Mohammed 7-5, 2-6, 6-1 as Megh Bhargav Patel of India beat fourth seed Jeremy Gschwendtner of Great Britain 6-1, 3-6, 6-4.
