NAN-S-11
Tennis (Re-opend)
By Franklin Ohaegbu
Lagos, Oct. 11, 2016 (NAN) Valetini Grammatikopoulou of Greece, the top female seed at the Governor’s Cup Lagos Tennis tournament, on Tuesday had a tough encounter with India’s Kyra Shroff which lasted for 3 hours.
She eventually won 2-6, 6-2, 6-2 to qualify to the second round.
Grammatikopoulou, entered the ongoing 16th Governor’s Cup Lagos Tennis Championships at the Lagos Lawn Tennis Club, Onikan, ranked 207 in the International Tennis Federation (ITF).
She told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) after her victory that she was not expecting a tough match in her first game.
“Honestly, I wasn’t expecting this much for a start. I lost the first set and I have to make up for it.
“It is not easy coming back from scratch; I have to fight hard to get back to win, this was what I told myself.
“My opponent’s forehand is very perfect and I had to watch how I placed my balls to her to avoid losing points.
“So, I placed most of my balls so that she would continually hit with her backhand strokes and it worked for me,’’ she said.
Meanwhile, unseeded Shroff, ranked 659, said: “Winning the first set got me over and I actually thought I would do same in the second, but I was wrong’’.
In other women’s singles, first timers in the competition, Harmony Tan from France, seeded seven, defeated Russia’s Margarita Lazareva, winning 6-2, 6-2.
Number three seed, Conny Perrin from Switzerland, defeated unseeded, Fanny Ostlund in a quick match, winning 6-4, 6-2.
Ukraine’s Valeriya Strakhova, seeded four, thrashed unseeded, Akilah James from Granada in two sets, winning 6-4, 6-4.
NAN reports that the players, who came from 39 countries of the world, will be fighting for ranking points and 50, 000 dollars prize money in the men and women’s events.
The finals of the first leg will hold on Oct.15. (NAN)
FOE/ENN/PDE
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(Edited by Edwin Nwachukwu and Controlled by Peter Ejiofor)