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Gallant Igbinovia fails in Heineken title bid
Stories by Anthony
Abolo,Jr.
Reporter, Lagos
Jonathan Igbinovia, who had been expected
to emerge winner of this year’s Heineken Open Tennis Championship Futures
II having reached the finals, lost 5-7,4-6 to Jasper Smith of the Netherlands
on Saturday at the Lagos Lawn Tennis Club, venue of the tennis championship.
Igbinovia, the only Nigerian who reached
that stage, lost against all hopes that he would clinch the ultimate prize.
Igbinovia beat Myalikulli Mamadkuliev of
Tukmenistan 6-4,6-4 in the first round. He also beat Salifu Mohammed of Ghana
6-4,1-6,6-3 to advance to the semi-finals. In the semi-finals, he defeated
winner of the Governor’s Cup and the No. 1 seed Sebastian Fitz of Germany
6-3,2-6 and 7-6(3), which raised hopes that he would eventually win the trophy.
Igbinovia lost to the Dutch, who was sick
and tired as a result of a disturbing stomach problem, which he said had been
persistent in the last five days. This, he said, had made him believe he stood
no chance of winning in the final.
The No. 7 seed Smit said, “I was not
expecting to win the match. I have been very sick in the last five days but I
believe I won because Jonathan played very badly. He made a lot of mistakes and
that enabled me to win.”
Despite Igbinovia’s loss, the match
referee from South Africa, Iian Smith, said the tournament had been very
impressive. He said the Nigerian players had given a very good account of
themselves having reached the finals. He also said this year’s tournament
was a major improvement from that of the previous years in terms of the prize
money and the participation, which drew a lot of quality players. Smith refused
to be drawn into making a comparison between the Governor’s Championship
and the Heineken Open and instead chose to say that both tournaments were of
very high standards. Smith also said that the fact that a Nigerian played in
the final was a very good sign for Nigerian tennis.
“When you have a Nigerian playing in
the final, what does it tell you? Nigerians are doing very well and I see a lot
of hope in the players,” he said.
Togo’s Loglo Komlavi Loglo, who
reached the semi-finals of the tournament, expressed sadness at the fact that
Igbinovia lost to a European, saying that he would have loved to meet Smit whom
he believed he would have been able to defeat. “I feel sad that Igbinovia
lost the match. I knew that Smit was very sick and tired. I told Igbinovia this
to help him but in spite of this, he still lost the match. I don’t feel
too good about this,” he said.
This year’s tournament, the 35th by
Nigerian Breweries and the fifth by Heineken has been described as one of the
most successful by most of the participants.
Meanwhile, the women’s singles was
won by Vasilissa Bardina of Russia. She beat Jennifer Schmidt of Austria
6-1,6-3. The women’s doubles was won by the pair of No. 3 seed Franziska
Etzel of Germany and No. 2 seed Jennifer Schmidt of Austria. They beat the pair
of Alana Broderick of Jamaica and Surina De Beer of South Africa 6-4, 6-3.
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