With the men’s singles first round in the books at the African Games, Sylvester Emmanuel, Joseph Imeh and Emmanuel Sunday will look to continue advancing through the draw, when they take to court for the second round in Rabat on Sunday.

Sylvester Emmanuel, the 16th seed, was impressive in a three-set victory in his opener against Mali’s Seydou Diallo on Friday. The 21-year-old will try to ride the momentum from that win into his second-rounder against Gueninle Ouattara of Ivory Coast.

Nigerian No.2, Joseph Imeh and Emmanuel Sunday will also look to move into the third round, with Imeh facing another Ivorian, the 17-year-old Eliakim Coulibaly, who’s seeded 15th, and Sunday clashing with top seed, Mohamed Safwat of Egypt.

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Joseph Imeh.

Imeh needed only 48 minutes to close out his first round contest with Abdoulaye Bagayoko of Mali on Saturday, and will now try to keep up the momentum, when he meets the young Ivorian, Coulibaly.

Sunday, meanwhile, faces a tricky test in Egypt’s Safwat, who has plenty of experience playing on the Challenger Tour and the ITF World Tennis Tour, where he’s won 24 titles, including a title at the Tombim Abuja Open in 2016. However, Sunday was very impressive in his first round match here, dropping only two games in a 6-1, 6-1 victory over Fenosoa Rasendra, and will come into this encounter with plenty of confidence.

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Emmanuel Sunday after his first round match win.

The doubles event gets started on Sunday also, with Nigerians in action. Emmanuel Sunday, after his singles match, will partner with Thomas Otu to take on Zimbabwean brothers, Benjamin Lock and Courtney John Lock, both of whom have won 10 doubles title as a pair on the ITF World Tennis Tour.

In the women’s doubles, the duo of Blessing Samuel and Aanu Aiyegbusi will be aiming to get off to a great start, when they meet the Ethiopian pair of Nejat Ali and Mekedes Shumet.