Chukwunonso Nwabueze of Nigeria Television Authority (NTA) on Thursday defended his title at the 2022 FCT SWAN Tennis tournament to deny a spirited Victor Okoye of News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) a fairytale final.
This was after a hard-fought 6-4 6-4 final showdown at the Tennis Court of the Moshood Abiola National Stadium, Package B, Abuja.
NAN reports that Nwabueze who won the 2021 title was drawn bye as he didn’t play a single match coming into the final.
Okoye on his part, thrashed FRCN’s Chidoka Nwabueze in two straight sets in the quarter-finals before downing an out of sorts Busayo Olowookere of Nigeria Customs Broadcasting Network (NCBN) also in two straight sets in the semifinals.
Nwabueze who is a certified Nigeria Tennis Federation (NTF)/International Tennis Federation (ITF) Umpire with alot of experience and wins under his belt was up against Okoye who had little or no experience in the game.
Okoye however looked to continue his fairytale run in the competition as he surprisingly began of the front foot to take the first game 1-0 having won the toss to serve.
However, the more experienced Nwabueze overcame a tentative start to brush aside his error-stricken opponent with a clinical display in two straight sets to end Okoye’s fairytale run.
Nwabueze’s performance saw him hit six winners, of which four were from the forehand side, as he won 82 percent of his first service points.
“For me it was important that at the beginning he(Okoye) wasn’t taking for granted because finals are always a little bit more difficult for everyone.” Nwabueze said during his post-match interview.
“I’ve played a lot of these kind of games and I know they can be very tricky against players such as him, especially after watching the way he brushed aside some very strong opponents enroute to the final.
“The last thing I didn’t want to do was to be complacent. So, I just tried to hold in my first game and then I think I played a very solid match as I was well rested and mentally prepared for the game,” he said.
Okoye in his part said he was pleased with his performance as he surpassed his expectation, adding that there room for improvement.
“I think I did incredibly well to get so far and surpassed all expectations of everyone.
“I worked really well to get to the final and even picked up a knee injury during the semi-finals which affected my game today.
“To think that this is my very first time of holding the tennis racket to play a competitive game such as this is really amazing.
“This is just the beginning of greater things to come and I am sure that there will be more occasions in the future where I perform as good or even better,” he said.
The week-long FCT SWAN tournament which began with walking jogging exercise on Saturday is expected to end with the semi-finals and the final of the football event on Thursday.
The first semi-final match sees defending champions NTA do battle against VON, while 2021 runners up NAN take on FRCN for a place in the final. (NAN) (www.nannews.ng)