Nigeria’s Adetayo Adetunji has been crowned champion of the girls’ singles at ITF U18 Junior Circuit which ended in Benin Republic on Saturday following a 6-4, 6-1 win over Linda Elounde of Cameroun.
The 17-year-old Adetunji, who is based in South Africa, was too handful for Elounde somehow justifying her reaching the quarter-finals at this year’s Commonwealth Youth Games in Bahamas in July.
Nigeria was however denied a double shot at the title as Christopher Bulus was edged 6-4, 6-4 by homeboy Delmas Ntcha in the boy’s semi-finals
There was no joy either for Oyinlomo Barakat Quadri, who was making her debut at this level, as her partnership with Adetunji were second best to Alexandra Antilla and Doroteja Joksovic 3-6, 6-2, 10-8 in the girls’ doubles.
On the heels of her record-breaking feat last year where she won the three legs at the U16 level, Quadri was eliminated in the quarter-finals of the singles by Indian Bhakti Bawani.
It was the same story for the Ireland-based Bola Obasoto, who partnered Moroccan Azeez Hehali, as they stumbled to a 4-6, 6-1, 6-10 loss to Ntcha and Sylvester Moumonu.
Meanwhile, the Nigerian team have now moved to Lome, Togo for the second and third legs of the point-earning tournament featuring over 80 players from 24 countries across the world.
Assistant National Junior coach Abel Ubiebi, who is leading the delegation, expressed satisfaction with the overall performance of the team promising that the lapses noticed in their performance will be fixed.
He declared: “We are ending this first leg mentally stronger and this is what we need to start the second leg in Togo.”