The top two seeds in the girls and boys events of the 2025 Zenith Bank Next Generation Masters went through very challenging round robin group playoffs but still booked their places in the finals with convincing straight sets wins.
Nenrot Suwa from Plateau who went from the preliminaries to the semis of the senior national Vemp Championships beat Alice Paul from Ondo 6-3, 6-4 in a match that lasted 2hrs.50mins. The indication that the match was not as easy as the scores suggest was that the final point lasted 15 minutes with 161 exchanges. However Suwa always outlasted the highly improved youngster from Akure.
Suwa would face the No.2 seed, Goodnews Aina, who is the current Girls 16 national champion and became the first junior to win the CBN Juniors and beat the national senior champion and top seed of the senior event in the same year. Aina who is emerging as another precocious talent in the pipeline easily beat her team mate, Gloria Samuel 6-2, 6-2.
In the boys event Ganiyu Oladipupo survived a close battle with the versatile and highly skilled John Nubari from Port Harcourt. Oladipupo from The Lagos Lawn Tennis Club overcame Nubari 6-4, 4-6, 10-6 to book a place in the finals against his club mate Basit Ajao who defeated Gbolahan Olawale from Akure 6-2, 6-2.
The Zenith Bank Next Generation Masters aims to isolate the most promising intermediates and position them for success at the senior national and global levels.
According to Godwin Kienka, director of the International Tennis Academy, organisers of the event, 85% of the champions at the national level have passed through this competition.
PHOTO:
Joseph Jimoh, the 2024 champion
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