Dawda bundled out of ITF tennis tourney

By ERNEST NDUNDA

It was end of the road for the only surviving Kenyan girl Nikita Dawda after she was bundled out of the on-going Mombasa International Tennis Federation (ITF) tennis tournament.

Playing under hostile weather condition at Mombasa Sports Club, Dawda, fought gallantly to stretch the match to tie break in the first set that lasted for 177 minutes.

This was, however, an upset for Nikita who was the tournament’s third seed as unseeded Hariniony Andriamananarivo of Madagascar sent her packing.

In the first set, which lasted two hours, Dawda started well with superb returns and swinging the ball nicely to her opponent who narrowly won 7-5 after tiebreak. In the second half, Nikita looked frustrated with the way the balls were landing to Andriamananarivo from Madagascar who needed 57 minutes to wrap up the match 7-5,6-4 to advance to today’s quarters.

In another match, Britt Geukens of Belgium dismissed Italy’s Alessia Pappalardo 6-1,6-2 to advance. In today’s quarters, Geukens take on top seeded Yasmin Ebada of Egypt who defeated Farah Abdelaziz 6-0,3-6,6-2.

Unseeded pair

In another girls’ match, Alice Matteuch of Italy edged out Maryse Chaboteaux of Belgium 6-2,6-1, also to sail to the quarters.

Devan Mccluskey of USA defeated Sarah Askew of Britain 3-6,6-3,6-2 while Audrey Capovet of Belgium beat Britain’s Brigit Folland 7-5,6-1.

The only Kenyan boy in contention Ismael Changawa was to play his third round match against Botswana’s and sixth seed Lame Botshoma to decide who advances to the quarter-finals.

In boys’ doubles, Changawa teamed up with Julian Turosienski of Poland to beat Botshoma (Lame) and Bartosz Korzeniewski 7-5,6-4 to qualify for the quarters.

Top seeds Nikhit Adusumilli of India partnered with Romain Barbosa of Belgium before they were upset by unseeded pair of Eduard Mihaescu of Romania and Italy’s Fabrizio Rosini 7-6 (4), 6-3.

Another upset was when second seeds Kenya’s Atunga Onyancha and Isaac Stoute of Britain were dismissed by unseeded Pascal Klos of Poland and Taipei’s Liang Lin 6-7 (8), 7-5 (10-8) to book a quarterfinal ticket.