Dayak Tennis Championship: Nigeria’s Michael, Balami Bow Out In Second Round

Nigerians are no longer in contention for honours at the Dayak Tennis Championship holding at the National Tennis Centre, Package B, National Stadium, Abuja after the duo of Moses Michael and Umaru Balami lost their second round matches on Wednesday.

Michael, who is the highest ranked Nigerian player by the ATP at no 1204 was edged 6-4, 7-5 by sixth-seeded American, Nicolas Meister in a match that lasted 2hrs 2mins while Balami, a surprise 7-5, 7-6 conqueror of Uganda’s Duncan Mugabe, was floored 6-1, 6-0 by Egyptian Karim-Mohammed Maamoun.

The opening match at centre court between Michael and the stylish-serving Meister saw the world no 354 American taking control of the match after he broke the Nigerian in the third game. Subsequent games went with the serves for a 6-4 opening set win for Meister.

Michael, who had two foot fault calls against him, almost made irrelevant the 850 place difference between him and the 26-year-old American when he broke back in the sixth game of the second set to lead 5-4 but it was the Californian who broke decisively in the eleventh game to lead 6-5. Although Moses, who recorded four aces against his opponent’s three, saved two match points in the twelfth game, there was no stopping the American who, despite recording the only double faults in the match while on a match point see off the resistance of the homeboy to complete a successive wins over Nigerian players following his first round triumph against Sylvester Emmanuel.

Balami on his part could be said to have bitten more than he can chew after his first round heroics against Mugabe as he was taken out in less than an hour by the seventh-seeded Egyptian.
Other second round matches saw Spaniard top seed, David Perez Sanz made light work of Anrian Andrzejczuk of Poland 6-2, 6-2 while Dutchman Antal van Der Duim got the better of Austrian teenager, Lenny Hampel 6-2, 4-6, 7-5.

Moses Michael.

Mohamed Safwat of Egypt proved superior to Zimbabwe’s Takanyi Garaganga with a 6-3, 7-5 win. It was the second straight meeting of the Africans, with the Egyptian second seed winning on both occasions.

Serbian Ilija Vucic, also progressed to Thursday’s quarterfinals with a comfortable 6-1, 6-3 win over Chandril Sood of India.

Dubbed one-racquet man Vucic, a qualifier, has stunned pundits with his displays that saw him defeat fourth-seeded South African Tucker Vorster in the first round. He is also playing in the doubles with just a racquet.

David Pel of the Netherlands and South Africa’s Nicolaas Scholtz also progressed to the last-eight with 6-7,6-3, 3-0 (ret.) and 7-5, 6-4 wins over eighth seed Alexander Igoshin of Russia and Hunter Reese of USA respectively.

Dayak Tennis Championship: Nigeria’s Balami upsets Uganda’s Mugabe

Nigeria’s Umaru Balami upsets Duncan Mugabe of Uganda 7-5, 7-6 as the main draw of the first leg of the Dayak Tennis Championship served off on Monday at the National Tennis Centre, Package B, National Stadium, Abuja.

World no 1983, Balami was a lucky loser from the qualifiers and was less fancied to win the first round clash, as he struggled in the opening set where at a point he trailed 4-1. He however rallied back to edged his world no 1036 ranked opponent for the first set which he won 7-5.

Mugabe was in a similar position in the first round of the Tombim Abuja Open exactly a week ago losing the first set to another Nigerian Sylvester Emmanuel but on that occasion, he upped his game to win the second and third sets to progress to the next stage. He was on the verge of repeating that feat when he led 6-5 in the second set but Lagos-based Balami would not blink as he took his serve leveling scores 6-6 to force a tie-break which he won 7-4.

“I’m happy to win because my starting was very poor. I came into the game knowing that if I play well I can beat him. The belief together with the support I got from my friends helped me a lot,” the 21-year-old left-handed player, now scheduled to meet seventh-seeded Mohamed-Karim Maamoun of Egypt, a 7-6, 6-3 conqueror of Russian Yan Sabanin, said.

Balami’s win proved to be a reprieve for Nigeria following the exits of Joseph Umeh and Christopher Edwards in the early matches played in the ITF Pro Circuit tournament.

Umeh, the world no 2070, is one of the four wild card entrants from Nigeria but was no match for Dutchman Antal van Der Duim as he succumbed 6-3, 6-2 to the world no 355 fourth seed while Edward bowed to Adrian Andrzejczuk of Poland 6-4, 6-4.

In some other first round matches played on Monday, eight-seeded Alexander Igoshin of Russia defeated Issam Taweel of Egypt 6-4, 6-2 while David Pel of the Netherlands triumphed 6-1, 6-3 over Franco Feitt of Argentina.

Eight more first round matches are scheduled for today with three Nigerians listed for action.

Moses Michael, Nigeria’s highest ranked player in the ATP (1204) keeps a date with Indian qualifier, Anvit Bendre just as Sylvester Emmanuel the world no 1541 confronts American no 5 seed Nicolas Meister.

Nigeria Tennis Federation no 1 ranked Thomas Otu faces a Herculean task with a confrontation with Mohamed Safwat of Egypt, the second-seeded world no 270, who clinched the Tombim title last Saturday.