By Chinwe Okeke
A heavy downpour  disrupted early morning matches of the 38th CBN Senior Open Tennis tournament which served off yesterday  at the tennis courts of the national stadium, Surulere, Lagos.

A match involving Nigeria’s number one and tournament’s first seed, Thomas Otu and Ekanem Etim was stopped with Otu leading one set up at 6-4. When play resumed, Otu went on to defeat Ekanem 6-1 in the second set.

Abdulmumuni Babalola dismissed Ikakah Emmanuel 6-2,6-1, while John Otu dismissed Christopher Itodo 7-6.6-1. In other men’s singles matches Sani Adamu defeated Onyedika 6-0, 6-2 as Imeh Joseph recorded a 6-0,6-2 win over Aliyu Idris. In the women singles, top seed Christy Agugbom defeated Folarin Akosile 6-0,6-0.

Meanwhile, one of the top contenders in the mens singles, Malcom Michael ha set his eyes on the title held by Thomas Otu. In a chat with Sports Vanguard, Michael said, I need the title and to achieve it, I must beat Thomas Otu because he is a very good player.”

Michael, however, lamented the lack of tournaments and praised the CBN’s efforts at remaining steadfast with the sponsorship of the tournament. “CBN is doing a good job but only few competitions in a year and not encouraging for players, there are not enough platforms to exhibit because after this tournament we await the Dalla Open in Kano in the next 5months.