Poor start for Kenya in tennis tourney

Hosts Kenya posted catastrophic results in day one of the International Tennis Federation (ITF) East Africa Junior Circuit competition at the Nairobi Sports Club,with both the men and women teams floundering.

First on the court was debutant Kennedy Musembi taking on Bienevenue Borangi. Musembi  however failed to outwit the Congolese, suffering two straight sets losses 6-0, 6-0.

Musembi scored the first point but soon ran out of gas,allowing Borangi to take advantage of the situation, and he never showed mercy on the Kenyan.

Meanwhile, Derick Ominde, who played only two matches in the July series termed his game as a motivational though he was thrashed 6-0, 6-0 by ruthless Mihailo Radosavuevic from Serbia.

“We are using this tournament to gauge ourselves for next years East Africa Zonal challenge on January.

“The game to me was good, I tried to work according to my game plan and everything was working but I made some few mistakes that really cost,” the junior said.

“Now I’m out of first leg singles but my target is to get good points and leap on the ITF rankings,” Ominde added.

Kenya’s only glimmer of hope came from from Dhruv Kavia who walloped Frenk Menad from Tanzania by two straight sets  6-0, 6-0.

 Musembi, Derick Ominde and Mwendwa Mutuku will now have to improve in their double matches  slated for tomorrow.

Though the hosts had a poor start, the Kenya under 18 tennis team head Coach Collin Abala  defended his players  insisting that they will up on their work play to have good results.

“So far not so bad, we have not showed a stellar performance but we are optimistic that good results will follow in the upcoming matches,” he said.

Abala believes that the tournament which acts as a preparation for the 2017 Zonal challenges will be of great help to his team.

With the sluggish start, all eyes will be on Albert Njogu, who is ranked eighth in the ongoing competitions and 1865 in the world as he jumps on the  court on Tuesday

Apart from Njogu, Randiek Randal who is ranked sixth in the competition and has won four single matches so far this year will also be in action on Tuesday.