Nigeria’s Christopher Bulus, Thursday, sets up a rematch with Delmas N’tcha of Benin as both players saw off their quarter-final opponents at the 2017 ITF U18 Circuit in Lome, Togo.
Third-seeded Bulus, who was a finalist in the first leg, rallied from a set down to beat Raphael Perot of France 1-6, 7-6(1), 4-0 (ret) while second seed N’tcha, who was the champion of the Benin Leg of the point-earning tournament, triumphed 6-3, 6-3 over Sewa Sewavi-Menasah of Togo
The match offers the vastly-improved Nigerian youngster, who rose 158 places to world no 621 at the start of the week, the opportunity to revenge the semi-final 5-7, 4-6 defeat he suffered at the hands of N’tcha in their last meeting exactly a fortnight ago. The winner of the tie will face Aman Patel of India or Sylvestre Monnou of Benin who face-off in the other semi-final.
The 16-year-old is still on course for a double as his partnership with Malaysia’s Darrshan Suresh will confront Togo duo of Kodjo Tchotchodji and Sewavi-Menasah.
In the girls’ singles, the quarter-final hurdle, again, proved to be enormous for last year’s triple champion Oyinlomo Barakat Quadre as she succumbed to Sophia Biolay of France 4-6, 4-6. She had bowed out at the same stage in the first leg and also in Benin where the three-leg tournament served off. Quadre, 14, now holds a 4-4 win-loss record for the year.