Reigning Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Tennis Championship women’s singles queen, Melissa Ifidzhen looks good to defend her crown at the tournament serving off on Monday following her performance at the Sharm el Sheikh hard court event in Egypt.
The Russian-born Melissa, who became a Nigerian player last year, had her best outing at the $10, 000 tournament last weekend reaching the quarter-final.
She defeated Australian Andjela Reljic 6-1, 6-4 in the first round and also edged Russian Anastasia Nafedova 7-5, 7-6 in the second round before she bowed to Adina Christian of Romania 6-3, 6-4 in the last-eight.
Born of a Nigerian father and a Russian mother, Melissa, who will turn18 tomorrow, has featured in nine WTA tournament since March including the ongoing leg of the Sharm el Sheikh tourney where she lost to Alexander Grinchonsoa of Kazakhstan 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 on Wednesday. She will pair Lalita Devarakonda of India to confront Qianqian of China and Yulia Kulikova of Russia in the second round of the doubles billed for Thursday evening.
Meanwhile, Melissa is on the verge of breaking into the top 1,000 in the WTA ranking less than a year after becoming a senior player. Her decent showing in Egypt last week saw her move up to 1,109 in the latest WTA rankings released on Monday. She has also moved up in the doubles as she is now ranked 794.
She defeated defending champion, Christy Agugbom in straight sets to clinch last year’s title in Lagos and also paired Sarah Adegoke to win the doubles.
She is scheduled to arrive Nigeria on Sunday.
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