African Games: No medal for team Ghana in tennis, as Egypt face Kenya in final Thursday
Ghana’s tennis team failed to win any medal in the ongoing African Games as none of the players fielded in the four competitive categories made it past the quarter-finals.
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The 10 players, who represented Ghana in the men’s singles, women’s singles, men’s doubles and women’s doubles categories were all eliminated in the preliminary rounds.
The players were Abraham Asaba, Acquah Johnson, Lameck Bagerbaseh, Samuel Antwi, Herman Abban, Isaac Nortey, Sisu-Makena Tormegah, Ruth Crawford, Elizabeth Bagerbaseh and Tracy Ampah.
In the men’s doubles event, Abraham Asaba joined forces with Isaac Nortey to reach the quarters but they lost the semi-final berth to Mohamed Safwat and Fares Yehia Zakaria from Egypt in a match which ended 6-4, 6-1, 6-1,6-4.
Similarly, in the women’s doubles event, Ghana’s combination of Sisu-Makena Tormegah and Tracy Ampah as well as Elizabeth Bagerbaseh and Ruth Crawford got eliminated just after the second round of the competition.
GTF defence
Meanwhile, President of the Ghana Tennis Federation (GTF), Isaac Duah Aboagye has attributed his team’s failure to poor standards in the sports.
“They lost to better opponents. For instance, the guy who defeated Abraham Asaba in the men’s singles was the one who qualified for the last Olympics,” he said.
“If you look at the caliber of players from the other countries, the infrastructural development in those countries and the standard of play that they display, it is not surprising that they defeated our players,” Mr Duah said.
Final
Kenya’s Angela Okutoyi put up a splendid show to pick a slot to the women’s singles final which will come off on Thursday, March 21.
Otukoyi, 21, defeated her Egyptian opponent Mayar Ahmed Abdelaziz 5-7, 7-5, 7-6(3) in the semi-final to set a date with another Egyptian Lamis Elhussein Abdelaziz in the final. Lamis Abdelaziz also defeated her compatriot Sandra Sameh Samir 6-3, 7-5 in the other semi-final match.
Playing in front of a sizable crowd, Otokoyi put up a fighting spirit as she recovered from 3-0 down to force a tie-break and clinched the first set.
She earlier dispatched Morocco’s El Aouni 6-4-6-4 in the quarter-final before meeting Mayar Abdelaziz in the semis.
In the men’s single event, Zimbabwe’s Benjamin Lock will face Moez Echargui of Tunisia in the final on Friday.
