Ohmar rocks Godson and Raval at Sadili

By Oscar Pilipili

South African Ohmar Fernandes caused a double upset after beating seeded players at Sadili Masters Challenge.

Fernandes shocked second seed Maria Godson of Tanzania 7-5, 6-2, and proceeded to hit fifth seed Nikita Raval 6-7, 6-1, 6-3 to enhance chances to reach the semifinals in group one of the ladies singles round robin competition.

Favourite Asisa Butoyi had a comfortable win against Maria Godson 6-2, 6-1, while Raval took down Musumbi Jack 6-3, 6-0 in matches at Sadili Oval Sports Club in Lang’ata.

In the mens singles, Yash Rawal beat Billy Nyawalo 6-0, 6-3 to advance to the second round, where he met and challenged top seed Jonas Jacob of Tanzania, but lost 5-7, 3-6 in an exciting encounter.

Second seed, Francis Rogoi recorded a quickfire 6-0, 6-0 win over university student, Francis Ndati, to advance to the quarterfinals.

There were no upsets in the men’s draw, with third seeds Yasin Lila (Tanzania) and Joab Odera (Kenya) dispatching George Mureithi and Musa Wallah 6-0, 6-0 respectively.

Nigerian newcomer Alvin Okon had to dig deep before winning against 16-year-old Kenyan upstart Arhun Raval 6-1, 6-2.

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Jesse Mbugua beat Louise Mukolwe 6-0, 7-5 to advance to the second round, where he succumbed to hard-hitting sixth seed Hilary Nyakabau (Zimbabwe) 1-6, 1-6, while George Muga beat Sebit Mohamed (Kenya) 6-2, 6-0 to set up a quarter-final.

The tournament is sponsored by Friends of Sadili and has a prize money of Sh100,000.

According to Sadili Director Liz Odera, the tournament’s prize money is only rivalled by the Kenya Commercial Bank Kenya Open award.

The first Challenge was won by Asisa and Jacobs at the same venue last month.