London-based Nigerian tennis prodigy, Elizabeth Garos-Pam, has explained why she lost the ladies singles title of this year’s Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Senior Open Tennis championship to former champion, Christy Agugbom.
Garos-Pam
In a chat with TheNiche after the final match played last Saturday at the centre court of the Tennis Section of the National Stadium, Surulere, Lagos, the 16-year-old cited home support, loss of concentration and the weather as part of factors that contributed to her defeat.
“Agreed that I played against an experienced player in the person of Agugbom, I want to believe that the support she enjoyed from the crowd affected my play. The home support was too much for her, and that gave her confidence to keep on fighting, even when I was leading,” said Garos-Pam who won the first set 7-5.
She went further: “After I won the first set, I was eager to wrap up the match and end it in two straight sets; but alas, I lost concentration, perhaps, due to the booing from the fans.
“The weather was also not favourable to me, and I was not surprised when I lost the next two sets to settle for the second place,” she said.
Agugbom won her second of four finals in the championship when she defeated Garos-Pam 5-7; 7-5; 6-3 in the ladies singles. She won the title in her first final in 2008 when she played and defeated Fatima Abinu. She, however, lost the title the following year to the same Abinu and also lost in last year’s final to Ronke Akingbade.
For her efforts, Agugbom smiled home with N700,000 cash, while Garos-Pam went home with N500,000.
In the men’s singles, four-time champion, Abdulmumuni Babalola, added his fifth title when he defeated defending champion, Henry Atseye, in two straight sets of 6-2, 6-2 to win the star prize of N700,000 while Atseye got N500,000 for placing second.
In the men’s doubles, Babalola teamed up with Taiwo Owolabi to beat the pair of Albert Bikom and Tyolumum Tyav in two sets of 6-1, 6-4 while Agugbom joined Blessing Samuel to dismiss the pair of Ronle Akingbade and Loila Kienka in two sets of 6-3, 7-6 to win the ladies’ doubles title.
The wheelchair men’s singles title went to Alex Adewale who beat Jude Uwazie in two sets of 6-2, 6-2, just as Remi Basanya dismissed Tosin Dowolu also in two sets of 6-0, 6-0 to win the wheelchair ladies’ singles.
President of the Nigeria Tennis Federation (NTF), Sami Ndanusa, expressed appreciation to the management of CBN for the continuous sponsorship of the championship in the last 36 years and urged the apex bank not relent.
