Nigeria Fails To Make Doubles Final, As First Leg Ends Tomorrow

THE opportunity for Nigeria to make its presence in the final of the men's doubles event was lost yesterday as the duo of Nonso Madueke and Sunday Maku fell to India's pair of Karan Rastogi and Vishnu Vardhan in the semifinal of the on-going Governor's Cup Lagos Tennis Championship.The Nigerian pair of Madueke and Maku had accounted for the exit of India's Vijayant Malik and Kaza Vinayak Sharma in the knockout stage and went ahead to conquer pair of South Africa's Steffen Solomon and Zimbabwe's Mark Fynn in the quarterfinal.Despite the huge support from home fans at the Lagos Lawn Tennis Club (LLTC), the Nigerians failed to match the cheering with skills on court, as the Indians wasted no time in dismissing them.The Nigerians fell in two straight sets 6-2, 6-2 to puncture their compatriots' dream of seeing them in the finals of the first leg of the competition.A disappointed Maku told The Guardian that despite the defeat they were happy making it to the semifinal stage of the event. 'Nobody ever believed we could get to this stage of the championship because most Nigerian players failed to get to this stage. Though we lost, we are satisfied that we made it to this stage and we are hoping for better outing in the second leg of the championship next week,' Maku said.
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