•Brandon Sagala lost in the second round to Siidarth Madhavani of India 6-2, 6-0
•.He expressed confidence that the Kenyan contingent will progress to the final rounds after a disappointing performance.
Kenyan tennis players were bundled out of the International Tennis Federation (ITF) Under-18 tournaments held at the Nairobi Club.
Brandon Sagala lost in the second round to Siidarth Madhavani of India 6-2, 6-0.
Liberty Kibue managed a paltry three games to Li Yile of China 6-2, 6-1 as Rogelio Mama found the going tough, falling to Hamad Abdoudelia of Egypt 6-0, 6-0
Haria Resh was dismissed by Joseph Gorgiev of South Africa 6-1, 6-0 while Alan Kimathi lost to Robert Westphal in a tough three-set battle, going down 6-4, 2-6, 6-1.
Kimathi put up a strong fight in the first set before running out of steam in the second. A succession of unforced errors in the third set proved costly as he bowed out
Sagala said he hopes to bounce back next week in the second leg of the tournament. "I have areas of my game I need to improve and I will work on them in the next couple of days and I will be good to go by next week,” he said.
He expressed confidence that the Kenyan contingent will progress to the final rounds after a disappointing performance.
“ We have a good crop of players and I think we can compete with our counterparts from across the world in the second leg, ” added Sagala.
He aims to work on his service game for future tournaments. “My service game is not at its best right now but I aim to work on it to be better."