Kenya tennis players were bundled out of the Confederation of African Tennis championship in Tunisia.
Mohammed Belcora of Morocco ended Kevin Cheruiyot’s campaign with a 6-0, 6-3 score in the second round while Sheil Kotecha’s path was effectively blocked by Richard Thongoana of South Africa 6-1, 6-0. The other Kenyan casualty was Oliver Kigotho who bowed out in the first round, losing to Amaury de Beer of Mauritius 6-0,6-0.
Cheruiyot failed to trouble Belcora in their match as he struggled to come to terms with the slow murram courts. Belcora punished Cheruiyot’s error strewn service and led from the start to the end ofn the opening set.
Cheruiyot came out firing in the second to break Belcora’s serve to lead 2-0 . Belcora fought back in the third and fourth games for 2-all then took the fifth for a 3-2 advantage.
Cheruiyot kept up the pressure by taking the sixth game to tie the game at 3-3.
Belcora then raised his game to win the seventh and broke Cheruiyot’s serve in the eighth to lead 5-3. He closed out the game in the ninth game to ensure it was he who reached the third round and not the Kenyan.
Kotecha who had battled hard to reach the second round by beating Ahmed Mouhan of Libya 6-4, 7-6 in the first round failed to replicate the form against Richard Thongoana winning only one game.
Kotecha believes there is room for improvement but welcomed the challenge of playing Africa’s best players.
“The exposure is good for growth of the game. Playing with the best players will improve my play,” added Kotecha.
Kotecha and Kigotho were later bundled out in the doubles, losing to Tunisia’s Mohammed Selim bin Ali and Zakaria ben Brahim 6-4, 2-6, 10-8 in a pulsating clash.
The Kenyan duo put up a good fight, chasing hard for every point but double faulted at crucial moments when pdressure piled up to hand victory to the Tunisians.
In other results yesterday, Top seed Youssef Hossam beat Amine Mirhab of Morocco 6-2, 6-1, Aziz Oukaa of Tunisia defeated Liova Ajavon of France 5-7, 7-5, 6-3 and Antoine Gbadoe of Togo beat Yasir Kilani of Morocco 6-1, 6-4.
