African Games: Ghana’s tennis team makes progress
Ghana’s tennis team put up a spirited performance in their opening games as majority of the players recorded wins in the men and women’s singles events at the Borteyman Sports Complex on Saturday, March 16, 2024.
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In the men’s singles competition, Lameck Bagerbaseh won 6-4, 6-0 against Gogo’s Kwame Roland Dussey, Herman Abban defeated Burundi’s Kalaga Sayouba 6-3, 6-2, Isaac Nortey claimed 6-0, 6-2 victory over Sileshi Getachaw Belay from Ethiopia while Abraham Asaba woo 6-1, 6-0 against Joelson Paulino from Angola to advance to the Round of 32.
Also in the women’s category, Ruth Crawford won 3-6, 6-4, 10-2 against Algeria’s Mebarki Bochra while Elizabeth Bagerbaseh trashed Ethiopia’s Eden Zewde 6-0, 6-0.
The only losers on the day were Samuel Antwi who was beaten 2-6, 1-6 by Egyptian Michael Bassem Sobhy and Johnson Acquah who lost 1-6, 4-6 to Benin’s Sylvester Monnou.
The President of the Ghana Tennis Federation (GTF) Mr Isaac Aboagye Duah expressed confidence that the players would excel in their various categories and win medals for the nation.
Mr Duah who is Ghana’s Chef De Mission for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, also urged athletes participating in other sporting disciplines to work hard to secure qualification for the Paris games.
He was worried that so far, no Ghanaian athlete has booked a place in the qualifying sports with eight sporting disciplines serving as Olympic qualification competitions.
“I am encouraging the players to fight hard and make us proud and get Olympic qualification. Just like what they did in Brazaville, we won gold in the tennis doubles event and we are good in that category.”
“This is because we are battling for Olympic slots all the top notch players from all over Africa are here in Ghana for the same purpose so it is tough but that is not the end of the road. We can come up with surprises. It is possible that we can get the Olympics through tennis,” he said.
“So far, there is no Ghanaian who has qualified for the Olympics and most of the Olympic sports have ended – swimming, cycling, table tennis, wrestling and now we have gotten to tennis so we are hoping that these players will qualify,” he added.
