Teluwo, Ezeh on fire as youngsters fight for Chevron Invitational Masters honours

Nigeria’s best emerging players have gathered at the Lagos Lawn Tennis Clu7b, Onikan to battle for honours at the on-going Chevron Invitational Tennis Masters, which is featuring academy stars from across the country.

Among the top players are two 14-year-olds, Serena Teluwo from Lagos and Chidinma Ezeh from Anambra, who are stepping up to play in the 16-age group. They showed outstanding skill and promise yesterday in their second round-robin match against the second and third seeds respectively that they drew complementary comments from many tennis enthusiasts at the venue.

Teluwo, who blew a 7-2 lead against Peace Obabori in her first round-robin match, eventually losing 8-9, came back really focused and determined against Omolade Aderemi, the second seed in the Girls 16 but still went down 6-9 in the pro-set match. Ezeh also pushed the third seed, Favour Moses from Kaduna, hard. The emerging star from Onitsha broke the hard-hitting Moses twice at the beginning but failed to convert her game points to consolidate her lead. Her opponent eventually found her range to win the match 9-5.

In other round-robin matches, the number one seed in the Boys 16s, Seun ‘Nadal’ Ogunsakin has one leg in the semifinals with easy victories over Mohamed Idris of Abuja 9-2 and Praise Ikueba of Rivers State 9-3. The second seed, Precious Ikueba, twin brother of Praise, is also on course for the semifinals with hard-fought wins against Emmanuel Ameh of Lagos 9-5 and Lucky Danjuma of Abuja 9-6. The round-robin matches are expected to be completed today with semifinal matches taking place tomorrow. The grand finale will follow on Sunday starting at 13.00 hrs.The Chevron Junior Tennis Invitational Masters is being organised by the International Tennis Academy (ITA).