First round action continues on Wednesday at the GSL Open in Abuja, with Joseph Imeh and Sylvester Emmanuel—the top-2 Nigerians—headlining the day’s slate of play, alongside top seeds, Sadio Doumbia and Tom Jomby, who are both seeking a second title in Abuja.

Joseph Imeh, the 2nd-ranked player in Nigeria, meets Simon Yitbarek of Sweden for the first time in their careers. Yitbarek is on the back of a first round exit at the Dayak Championships last week. The teenage Swede is just 2-3 on the year, but did reach the quarterfinals of the Tombim Open two weeks ago. Imeh, meanwhile, reached the second round of the Dayak Championships and now surely seeks to go one better this week.

Nigeria’s No.1, Sylvester Emmanuel will look to begin his forward progress on Wednesday against France’s Jaimee Floyd Angele, who fell in the second round of Dayak last week, but went as far as the final two weeks ago at the Tombim Open. Angele has risen to 595 on the ATP standings and will be aiming for a nice run in this final leg. Emmanuel, meanwhile, is playing in his first main draw match since retiring in the second round of the Tombim Open. Will he bounce back strongly?

Sylvester Emmanuel

Dayak champion, Tom Jomby, who’s seeded third, comes into the GSL Open riding a wave of momentum that carried him through last week’s event. The 28-year-old Frenchman made the title-run without dropping a set and will now seek to continue in that blistering form this week. He meets India’s Suraj Prabodh first in a first-time meeting between the two. Prabodh reached the semifinals of this event in 2018. Since then, however, he hasn’t recorded a single match-win on the ITF World Tennis Tour.

The 24-year-old Indian will certainly be looking to snap that losing streak, but against Jomby, that figures to be a major task.

Tom Jomby is chasing his 7th ITF World Tour title at the GSL Open this week.

Top seed, Sadio Doumbia will aim to bounce back from a shock first round defeat at the Dayak Championships last week, and reproduce the kind of run he had at the Tombim Open, where he clinched the title two weeks ago. The Frenchman begins that quest against Kunal Anand in the first match on Court 1.

Anand comes off a second round exit at the Dayak Championships last week, where he lost to eventual champion, Tom Jomby. The Indian holds a 1-2 record this year and hopes to better it.

The two have met just once, with Doumbia winning a second round encounter in Cameroon in December, 2018. Anand will look to even that score today. Can he?