Pius Ayinor
The Zenith Bank Next Generation Masters for the top eight most promising players transiting to the seniors was bedevilled by rain interruptions for three days, but beautiful sunshine on Thursday also brought out the best in the players.
Most outstanding was 12-year-old tennis prodigy Mofi Atilola, who returned from an ITF Under 14 tournament in Zimbabwe on Monday and dived straight into the Zenith Masters.
In her decisive round-robin match in Group B, the wild card struggled in the first 6 games with Emmanuella Kwange of the Abuja-based Aurum Academy. However, a break of serve in the seventh game allowed the world-class talent to zoom off to a 9-3 win. She had earlier beaten Karina Opuene from Bayelsa and Gloria Samuel of the Ekiti-based LEKMAK Academy to top the group.
Goodnews Aina, another promising junior, also dominated her group, winning all her matches. The only resistance for the leftie came from Adeshewa Olaniyan from Ondo who pushed her to 5-5 before the powerful youngster peeled off for a 9-5 win.
In Friday’s semifinals, Atilola will take on James while Aina will face Kwange.
In the boys’ event, only Seyi Ogunsakin from the LEKMAK Academy won all his group matches. He will square up against Onyekachi Ogumjiofor from Ibadan, who came second in Group A. The top seed of the group, Mohammed Amir, lost a close match to Yohanna Yakubu, 9-8, but easily won his other matches against Ogumjiofor and Mueez Owolabi from the Lagos Lawn Tennis Club. Amir will face Joshua Maxwell from Rivers State.
The finals of the tournament, according to the International Tennis Academy – organizers of the event – will take place at the newly refurbished courts of the Mainland Tennis Club at the National Stadium Surulere on Saturday, beginning promptly at 12 noon.
Photo: Mofi Atilola
Extrasportnigeria 
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