Kenya’s dwindling fortunes in the in the ITF international Junior tennis tournament at the Nairobi club continued with both seeded players Kevin Cheruiyot and Sheil Kotecha being knocked out.
Oliver Kigotho was the sole Kenyan survivor to the next round after his opponent Ismail Saadi of Morocco retired while leading 2-0. Cheruiyot put up a gallant fight but lost to Anthony Ivanov of Bulgaria 7-6 (2) 6-4 while Kotecha was no match for the Frenchman Valentin Royer, losing 6-1, 6-1. The early exit was a blow for Cheruiyot after reaching the quarterfinals last week in the first leg at the same venue.
Albert Njogu, who won his opening first round match on Monday lost to South Africa’s Howard Tripp 6-0, 6-1. Five other Kenyan players exited in the first round. Ryan Randiek lost to Ying Ze Chen of China 6-3, 6-3 in the same category. However, Randiek had put up a fight in both sets but ran out of steam as the Chinese opponent dug deep to grind out victory. Reuben Karanja lost to South Africa’s Donald du Toit 6-2, 6-4.
In the girls category, fast rising Sneha Kotecha made an early exit, losing to Marion Job of France 6-2, 6-1 after showing good form during last week tournament. Kotecha was broken easily by her opponent and never recovered as she made several errors in her serve and trailed in both sets. Mary Wangui lost to Janvi Patel of India 6-0, 6-0 as Faith Nyabera by a similar scoreline to Aisha Niyonkuru of Burundi. Judith Moraa lost to Zara Lennon of Mauritius going down 6-1, 6-4.
