Daniel Adeleye over the weekend in Lagos won his first national singles title by beating Canice Abua 6-2, 6-1 in a largely one-sided match following a shoulder injury sustained by the top seed (Abua) in the late semifinals against Ikechukwu Iloputa the previous day.
However, in spite of the score, there were sti ll moments of brilliance and entertaining exchanges between the two players but the spectators knew Abua had no fight left in him when he called for a medical time-out.
Adeleye was playing in his second national singles final in three months having lost to Chris Bulus in the Rain Oil Tennis Championship final in February.
The Ladies’ singles finals, however, provided the excitement and quality the men could not give as the first set between Bright Emma-Essien and Etoro Bassey ‘changed hands’ several times with long well-placed rallies until 5-5 when Emma-Essien broke and served out the set. With the first set in her bag, Emma -Essien who was also a runner up at the Rain OIl Championships found the confidence to hit freely to win the second set 6-3.
The FHA Tennis Masters which had a N500,000 winners prize for the men and N400, 000 for the women was sponsored by Sir Walter Akpani, Chairman and CEO of Providus Bank
