Promising prodigy, Abayomi Animashaun attracted the attention of fans gathered at the Molade Okoya-Thomas Indoor Sports Hall on Day 1 of the 2015 International Tennis Federation (ITTF) World Tour Lagos.
Despite not progressing to Wednesday’s main draw, Abayomi posted some impressive performances in defeats by compatriot Tobi Falana, Egypt’s Sayed Ramadan and secured his only win against another Nigerian, Joseph Osedunkwu to end the day with some bit of confidence.
The 12-year-old from Ekiti State only missed out on a place in the main draw on account of games ratio, having suffered an 11-5, 11-6, 7-11, 9-11, 11-9 loss to Falana, dropped a four-game match to the unbeaten Ramadan 11-6, 11-8, 10-12, 12-10 before taking out Osendunkwu 9-11, 11-13, 13-11, 14-12, 11-8.
Osendunkwu had lost to Ramadan (11-7, 11-7, 11-7) but topped in three straight sets against Falana 11-8, 11-8, 11-7 but lost his crucial last game.
Falana also lost to Ramadan 6-11, 11-8, 2-11, 10-12. The Egyptian was the only player to win all three round-robin matches as every other player won just a game apiece.
Osedunkwu is however through to the main draw in second place with a game ratio of 5:3, followed by Abayomi (game ratio 5:5) and Falana (game ratio 3:5)
The Under-21 qualification round witnessed impressive performances from the likes of Dina Mesheref, Shao Jieni, Mabrouk Ahmed, Ogini Olasunkanmi and Helmy Yousra.
