Nigeria’s Abayomi Philips has qualified for the main draw of the Stavanger ITF – a Grade 5 indoor hard-court event in Stavanger, Norway, this week.
The 17-year-old, who played through three rounds of qualifying, defeated local favourite, Eivind Tandberg 7-5, 6-2 to move into the second round on Sunday.
In the second round, Philips, who won the GTFLifetime Athletic Open in Accra, in August, outclassed another local favourite, Alen Curovic, 6-3, 6-2 to move into the final round, where he was edged 7-6(5), 7-6(3) by Christian Parr.
However, the youngster still secured a place in the main draw of the boys singles category as a lucky loser and is the tournament’s top seed.
He’s received a bye in the first round and will next take on Swedish qualifier Edis Nokic, who defeated Austria’s Srijan Singh 6-1, 6-0 in his first round match on Tuesday.
The Nigerian, who’s ranked 477 on the ITF World Junior Rankings, is on the back of a final-run at the NTF International Junior Championships in Abuja two weeks ago and will be aiming for another strong showing in the European city this week.
