Youngster Oyinlomo Barakat Quadre continued her year-long impressive showing with a commanding 6-1, 6-0 win over compatriot Osariemen Airhunmwunde to move to the second round of the ongoing Lagos Open Tennis International Championship.
The teenager, who won two singles titles at ITF Junior Circuits in September, was dominant against the former Nigeria number four-ranked player, wrapping up the match in less than an hour.
Since her return from the ITF High Performance Center in Casablanca, Morocco, the 14-year-old wild card entrant has been Nigeria’s most successful player at junior level in the last two years.
In another women’s singles match, Valeriy Strakhova of Ukraine eased to a 6-1, 6-0 win over Jasmin Jebawy of Germany.
Meanwhile, in the men’s singles, Sylvester Emmanuel crashed out in the first round of the $100, 000 prize-money tournament following a 6-0, 6-0 defeat by India’s Arvean Govea.
The defeat was one of the heaviest for the Nigeria’s number two player who had hoped to make a mark in the upgraded tournament by featuring in tournaments in Monastir, Tunisia last week.
His sojourn to the North African country followed his winning the CBN Open and the Vemp Open, the last two national tournaments in Nigeria.
Govea attributed his comfortable win to the enormous pressure that his opponent was put through noting he (Emmanuel) is popular among the Nigerian fans.
A forgetful day for Nigeria was completed as Joseph Imeh, who like Emmanuel was a wild card beneficiary, also succumbed to first round defeat.
