Nigeria's Micheal Osewa continued
his giant-killing run at the on-going Championship in Pretoria, South Africa
with a 2-6, 6-2, 6-3 triumph over Jason Espitalier of Mauritius to qualify for
the semifinal of the 14&under of the 11-day event which will end on
Saturday.
Osewa had on Monday caused the
biggest shock of the tournament which attracts about 120 players from 25
countries with a come-from-behind 1-6, 6-3, 6-2 win over number one seed
Younes Adnane of Morocco and, in an identical fashion to his beating of the top
seed, he added his opponent from the Indian Ocean Island to his list of
casualties in the quarterfinal clash at the High Performance Centre of the
University of Pretoria.
The knockout stage has been a
complete turnaround for the eighth-seeded Osewa, who started the tournament on
a faltering note by losing to Eliakin Coulibaly of Cote d'Ivoire in the
preliminary stage.
However, with the likes of second
seed Elyes Marouani of Tunisia, Ahmed Atef of Egypt, who is the third seed and
Khololwam Montsi, the tenth seeded South African, who halted the incredible run
of Nigeria’s Gabriel Friday all still in the race for the title, Osewa still
have to up his game if he is to rule Africa.
Nigeria’s coach Mohammed Ubale
expressed confidence in Osewa declaring he could beat all his rivals to the
title but he was quick to add that he must avoid putting himself under pressure
by trailing all the time.
He said: “Osewa is very hungry for
success as he has been improving since the first game which he lost. He needs
to be calm because he is always eager to hit the winners which he hasn’t been
doing perfectly. Psychologically, he is always under big pressure after losing
the opening set. He needs to avoid falling behind.”
Osewa is the only player left in
contention for a title as the likes of Friday, Christopher Itodo, Christopher
Bulus, Adetayo Adetunji, Angel McLeod, Barakat Qaudri and Marylove Edward have
all exited from the singles events.
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