ITF: The going gets tough

By ERNEST NDUNDA

Only two Kenyans are still in contention after the other 10 made an early exit in the Mombasa International Tennis Federation (ITF) tournament, which entered its second day in Mombasa yesterday.

Ten Kenyans were shown the door in the first round before Ismael Changawa and Nikita Dawda outsmarted their opponents to revive Kenya’s hopes of advancing to the quarter-finals.

In yesterday’s boys’ match at the Mombasa Sports Club’s hard courts, Changawa took charge of the match against Rishi Shah of Britain to advance to the third round.

Ismael Changawa in action during the ongoing ITF Mombasa International Junior Championships at Mombasa Sports Club, Tuesday. [PHOTO:MAARUFU MOHAMMED/STANDARD]

Changawa never gave up in the fast and high quality match and needed 110 minutes to dismiss Shah 6-3,6-4.

Ideal position

The victory put the 12 seeded and 14-year-old Changawa in an ideal position ahead of the third round match set for today.

Dawda powered her way to the third round on the first day after she dismissed Maya Mammetguliyeva of Turkmenistan 6-0, 6-2.

In other boys’ matches played yesterday, unseeded Eduard Mihaescu of Romania pulled the upset of the day after he defeated top seeded Nikhit Adusumilli of India 6-1,6-1.

The Romanian had beaten Martinez Barbera of Italy 6-2,6-1 in the first round, while Adusumilli had a bye to the second round where he met his baptism of fire.

Mahaescu plays 13th seed Emile Gillot of Belgium who defeated Yu Lin of Taipei 5-7,6-4,6-1.

Amadi Kagoma of Burundi made it to the third round after beating Fabrizio Rosini of Italy 4-6,6-2,7-5 while eighth seeded Samm Butler of Britain edged out Kenya’s Jamin Esikumo who had a bye in the first round 6-0,6-0.

Third round

Slovakia and tournament’s 16th seed Blaz Bizjak easily floored Marcos Asvestas of Cyprus 6-0, 6-0 to roll to the third round.

In girls’ matches, Briton Farah Abdelaziz, who has some roots from Egypt, pushed top seeded Yasmil Ebada of Egypt to the limit in a tough encounter.

The Egyptian was pushed to the third set before wrapping up the match 6-0, 3-6, 6-2 to become the first player to qualify for the quarter-final.

Sarah Finck of France, who defeated Kenya’s Wendy Chen 6-3,6-2 in the first round’ was awarded a walkover to the quarters.

Nour Azzouz of Egypt, who was the tournament’s second seed, had problems with ITF and after long consultations, it was decided that she should not play. Finck was then awarded a walk over at the expense of Azzouz.

The tournament continues today starting at 9am. All the eight courts would be used for both singles and doubles matches.