Inspiring performances of Nigerians at Tombim Tennis Championship

The players are: Clifford Enosoregbe, Paul Christian, Albert Bikom, Moses Michael, Henry Atseye and Omang Otu, Micheal Okechukwu, Ubon Joseph Imeh, Balami Umaru and Iloputa Ikechukwu.
Nigeria Tennis Federation (NTF) coach, Emmanuel Babatunde had warned the boys to take full advantage of the competition to improve their standing in the game.
While noting that it usually cost about 4,000 to 5,000 dollars for a Nigerian player to take part in this kind of tournament abroad, he stressed that: “bringing this kind of opportunity to their doorstep is indeed a blessing.
“These are the kind of tournaments which will enable more of our players to make it to the professional world of tennis.”
“Organising local tournaments do not earn the players any points and it doesn’t take us anywhere,” he added.
Propelled by the Coach’s advice, six of them; Enosoregbe, Paul, Bikom, Michael, Atseye and Omang Otu made it to the Singles second round of the first leg of the tournament while four of them also made the quarter finals in the Doubles category.
Consequently, Nigeria from not having any Tennis Professionals (ATP) ranked player before the tournament, can now boast of six with potential points.
Speaking before the commencement of the championship, the Director of the tournament, Barrister Ikani Agabi who disclosed that the competition is to last over two legs, between 27th April to 2nd May and 4th to 9th May, said the main aim of the event was to create a platform where Nigerians can earn ATP points and move up the ladder of ranking in coming years.
“It is being staged out of a desire to provide opportunities for Nigerian players to collect vital ATP points, and to attract some of the best up and coming players to play in Nigeria,” he hinted.
The competition has 35 ATP points up for grabs and the winner of both legs has the potential to jump from not being ranked at all in the world to being ranked in the top 500 in the world.
Presently, there is no Nigerian with an ATP point, prompting the organisers to allocate all the wildcard slots to Nigerians in order to give them fighting chance. Four of the boys are wild cards, while the other six qualified from the preliminary stages.
Organisers had earlier disclosed that players from Russia, USA, Brazil, India, South Africa, Croatia, Spain, Zimbabwe, Canada, Uganda, Togo, France, Moldovo, Ghana, Zambia, Germany, UK and host of other countries sent in entries with 17 of them having ATP ranking points.
Interestingly, some of the Nigerians defeated ATP ranked players to edge into the second round. Clifford Enosoregbe defeated 1841 ranked Ugandan Mugabe Duncan 7-6, 6-2 while Michael Moses edged 1564 ranked Missodey Kokou of Togo in the first round.
Also, Omang Thomas Otu ran riot over 2184 ranked Croatian Merunka Stefan 6-4, 6-2 to make the second round.
Agabi noted: “What is marvelous about the result is the fact that Nigeria is now on the map of international tennis. So, having won their first round matches, these players will automatically be given ITF/ATP points and they will be included in the world rankings.”
However, five out of the six Nigerian Tennis players who made it to the second round of the Singles category crashed out of the first leg of the tournament on Wednesday.
Highly rated star, Clifford Enosoregbe fell to sixth seeded Deiton Baughman of the United States of America 6-2, 6-4 in his second round match.
While speaking with SHOT after his defeat, Enosoregbe acknowledged that his American opponent was far better than him and deserved to win.
“I lost the game because he played better than me. And you know, I got injured in the match.”
Bikom Albert Bisong who earlier put in a fight in the first set of his second round match against seventh seeded Crowley Keith-Patrick of South Africa was later humbled by the experience of his opponent. Crowley ran out 7-6 (1), 6-1 winner.
Also, Omang Thomas Otu was defeated by second seeded South African Vorster Tucker 6-4, 7-6 (5) while first seeded Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan brushed aside Paul Christian 6-3, 6-0 to advance to the quarter final.
More so, fifth seeded United State of America’s Song Evan easily dispatched Nigerian Atseye Henry 6-3, 6-1 to set up a quarter final battle with South African Vorster Tucker.
The Doubles was not an exception with no Nigerian player making the semi final stage as the duo of Crowley Keith-Patrick of South Africa and United State of America’s Song Evan defeated Nigerian Omang and Michael in a straight set; 6-1, 6-3 to advance to the semi finals.
Also, the duo of Indian Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan and Matija Pecotic of Croatia advanced to the semi finals after defeating the duo of Clifford Enosoregbe and Zimbabwean Tinotenda Chanakira 6-3, 6-1.
The last Nigerian in the doubles quarter final; Henry Atseye was also sent parking alongside his Indian partner; Kshitij Kamal after a 6-4, 6-4 defeat to British Joe Cooper and South African Tucker Vorster.
As all of them were falling, Michael Moses stood his ground, after battling his Spanish opponent, Cortes Alcaraz to the end. Having lost the first set 6-7 (5), Michael troubled Cortes with his strong services all through the second and third sets to win the last two sets 7-5, 6-2.
Meanwhile, despite the encomiums the Nigerian team is presently receiving, the boys will have to perform better in the second leg of the tournament starting from May 4th.
Though, most of them are new to a competition of this magnitude, the first leg of the tournament is expected to have improved the fitness of the Nigerian players who have been redundant for too long.
It is generally expected that the boys will put in an assured display when the second leg starts in order to improve their ranking and set the stage for the rebirth of the game of tennis in Nigeria.