Day to forget for Kenyans at ITF Tennis Tour
Kenyans Raymond Oduor and Liberty Kibue had a day to forget at the Grade 4 ITF World Tennis Tour at the Nairobi Club yesterday.
Oduor, who was first on track in the morning, went down 1-6/2-6 against top seed Portuguese Tiago Ferreira.
The Kenyan tried to push hard but his European opponent was on a higher level in the boys singles second round duel.
Oduor was at fault mostly on his service game and his returns proved erratic most of the time.
In the opening set, Oduor managed to pull away the game from his challenger but was at fault with his decision-making.
In the second set the Kenyan improved his deliveries but was let down overall by wide returns.
Meanwhile, the situation was worse for Kibue who came up against third seeded Indian player Aryan Shah as the former lost his second round match 0-6/0-6 in a horror show for the Kenyan.
Kibue started off with force, taking points off his opponent who was still settling in the match. However to Kibue’s disadvantage, Shah became more aggressive especially on the net with his returns and also aided by his game variety.
The 15-year-old Upper Hill High School protege tried moving the calm Shah out of his comfort zone with little luck as the Asian player closed out the match easily.
In the third leg of the ranking tournament, Kenya is left only with female player Roselida Asumwa who sailed through to the third round.
Kenya did not enter as many players this week in the singles for both girls and boys.
