Nigeria's Sylvester Emmanuel Reach Governor's Cup Next Round After Beating America's Reed

Nigeria's Sylvester Emmanuel has expressed satisfaction in his performance after beating American Anderson Reed 7-6(3), 6-3 at the ongoing 15th Governor’s Cup Lagos Tennis Championship.

Emmanuel, a wild card entrant, clinched the men’s singles title at the Dala Hard Court Championship two weeks ago and he seems

to have saved his best for the Governor’s Cup as he could only watch his Team Kalotari managed a third place finish at the NCC Team Tennis Final on Saturday.

An elated Emmanuel said after the match that he was not surprised with the victory over Reed who is ranked 1488 in the world, adding that hard work and experience he gained while travelled around the world to play in different circuits won the match for him.

“I feel great winning this match. I went into the match with a great confidence that I would win. This is because I played more ATP tournaments than Reed.  He was a good players but I’m better than him,” said Emmanuel, who in the past few months had played in ATP ranked competition in the USA, Togo and Benin Republic.

The Nigerian star, however, said that this year’s Governor’s Cup will be different for the local players as they are battle ready to give their foreign counterparts a good run for their money.

Other Nigerians who made headway in the first round of the men’s singles are Mohammed Mohammed, who defeated Ghana’s Bernard Dugbah 4-6, 5-3, 5-3, while Albert Bikom also edged Swiss Jessy Kalambay 5-7, 6-4, 7-5, all in the men’s singles.

Some Nigerian ladies won their respective matches of the first round, moving on to the second round. Ronke Akingbade beat compatriot Christie Nwankwo 4-6, 6-2, 6-1, while Blessing Samuel lost to Osariemen Airhumwunde 6-4, 6-2.

The duo of Mohammed Mohammed and Joseph Imeh beat the pair of Alexei Filenkov of Russia and Aldin Setkic of Bosnia to progress to the second round.

It was not a smooth sailing for Nigeria as Aminat Quadri lost 6-0, 6-0 to Frenchwoman Tessah Andrianoafitrimo while Kyra Shroff of India also crushed Nigeria’s Rita Obasigie 6-0, 6-0 in the women’s singles.

In other results, Tadeja Majeric of Slovakia beat Eden D’Oliveira of USA 60-3, 6-1. Ester Masuri of Israel defeated Olena Kyrpot of Ukraine 6-0, 6-3. Germany’s Andiyo Inwang, who was given a wildcard was beaten by Mara Schmidt of USA in straight set of 6-1, 6-3. Zimbabwe’s Valeria Bhumu beat Usina Sumail of India 6-1, 6-2, while Alexandria Riley of USA defeated Nina Kolar of Slovakia 5-3, 6-0 all in the women’s singles.