Other Sports of Wednesday, 31 July 2002

Source: gna

All seeded players through to second round

All eight seeded players at the International Tennis Federation (ITF) Men's West Africa Masters Satellite Tournament taking place at the Accra Sports Stadium Tennis Court made it safely into the second round at the end of the first round matches on Tuesday.

Gunther Darkey, Ghana and Tournament's number one seed made easy work of Adenumi Adenji from Nigeria, winning the first set 6-2 before his opponent got injured and retired, trailing 4-0 in the second set. Gunther thus becomes the only Ghanaian left in the tournament, following the defeat of Kwasi Ahinkora and Patrick Nortey.

Ahinkora was beaten in two straight sets, 2-6, 3-6 by seventh seeded Matwe Middelkoop from the Netherlands whiles Britain's Justin Layne handed Nortey a similar fate with a 6-1, 6-2 demolition. Gunther's booming serves and powerful ground-strokes, worked perfectly on his Nigerian opponent whose mobility was restricted as his knee was being heavily protected by a knee cap.

A win was a matter of course as Gunther broke him in the fourth and eighth games to take the set. The second was much easier as the Ghanaian broke his opponent twice in the second and fourth games before the Nigerian retired with a muscle pull.

In other matches, Number two seed Mohamed Drame of France eased through with a 6-4, 6-2 win over Tanzania's Ronnie Rugimbana whiles third seed Claude N'Goran from Cote de I'vorie beat Russia's Alexei Filenkov 6-1, 6-1.

Number four-seed Johan Du Randt from South Africa beat Sunday Maku from Nigeria 6-3, 7-6(7-5), Britain's Chris Lewis, seeded sixth defeated Toyin Dairo from Nigeria 6-4, 6-4.

Number eight seed Andrew Andersson from South Africa accounted for Ben Haran from Britain in a 7-6(7-4), 6-2 whiles Czech Republic's Josef Nesticy completed the first round matches with a 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 victory over Remco Pondman from the Netherland.

In the doubles, Gunther partnered Henry Adjei-Darko to beat another Ghanaian pair of Quincy Adjei-Darko and Fred Egyir 6-3, 6-4. Another Ghanaian pair of Daniel Fumi and Daniel Agykum were beaten 1-6, 1-6 by Middelkoop and Pondman. The competition continues on Wednesday with the second round matches.