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Yusuf Abubakar justified the wild card given to him by the organisers of the inaugural FHA Invitational Tennis Masters for the top eight players available in Nigera by beating Philip Abayomi in the final and decisive round robin match.
Abayomi who is ranked No.8 in the national rankings two places above his opponent, was favoured to win a match which had a semifinal reward attached to it but Abubakar dug in to win the first set 6-4 and easily took the second 6-1 against a big serving opponent who appeared disoriented.
The top three seeds, Canice Abua, Daniel Adeleye and Ikechukwu Iloputa came through their round robin groups to reach the semifinals. Adeleye will take on his doubles partner, Abubakar while Abua will take on Iloputa to fight for a place in the men’s finals.
In the ladies event, Etoro Bassey beat No.1 seed Blessing Omotayo 6-4, 6-4 in the last group match to lead the White group Bassey will face Omolayo Bamidele who emerged second in the Blue Group while Bright Emmanuel Essien will take on Omotayo to decide the two final spots.
The finals of the tournament which is being sponsored by Sir Walter Akpani of the Providus Bank has been scheduled to start at 3 pm on today.
