Nigeria’s Musa Mohammed came up short in his first round match at the GSL Open in Abuja today.
The Nigerian, aged 17, was beaten 6-2, 6-1 by American wildcard, Jacob Gamble. The 24-year-old Gamble broke in the sixth game of the first set for a 4-2 lead and kept his foot down to power through, winning 8 of the 9 next games to close out the 55-minute contest.
Gamble will face either Niels Lootsma or Swedish qualifier, Arvid Nordquist next.
Elsewhere, Guy Orly Iradukunda of Burundi, who made it to the quarterfinals of the Dayak Championships last week, fell in the first hurdle here to Michail Pervolarakis of Greece. The Burundian was beaten 6-3, 7-5 by Pervolarakis, who’s ranked 623rd in the world.
Michail Pervolarakis claimed a straight-sets win to move into the second round.
Meanwhile, 26-year-old American, Michael Zhu needed 69 minutes to beat 14-year-old British wildcard, Mukhatr Andu 6-4, 6-0.
Zhu will have his work cut out for him when he takes on Dayak champion, Tom Jomby of France in the second round, provided the Frenchman gets past India’s Suraj Prabodh in their first round encounter on Wednesday.
In the doubles event, the sensational French pair of Sadio Doumbia and Fabien Reboul began their quest for a 3rd straight title in Abuja with a comfortable 6-3, 6-2 victory over the Indian-Ukrainian duo of Kunal Anand and Oleg Khotkov in just 60 minutes to reach the quarterfinals.
Doumbia (R) and Reboul are chasing their 3rd title as a team in Abuja.
Doumbia and Reboul will next take on the teenage Nigerian-British duo of Musa Mohammed and Mukhtar Andu, who bounced back from a set down to beat the Nigerian pair of Sani Musa and Oche Emmanuel 3-6, 7-6(5), 10-5.
Another French pair, Tom Jomby and Arthur Bernabe joined the quarterfinal train, following a hard-fought 7-6, 5-7, 13-11 victory over Americans, Peter Kobelt and Michael Zhu.
Similarly, top seeds, Arjun Kadhe and Sundar Prashanth secured victory in three sets. The Indian duo rallied from a set down to beat the French-Serb pair of Maxime Mora and Boris Butulija 4-6, 6-3, 10-6.
Other winners include William Bushamuka and Jacob Gamble, who beat Darryl Hale and Suraj Prabodh 6-4, 6-2, fourth seeds, Niels Lootsma and Danylo Kalenichenko defeated the Brazilian tandem of Gilbert Soares Junior and Pedro Sorgi 3-6, 6-3, 10-4, and the French-Greek pair of Dan Added and Michail Pervolarakis, who went past Arvid Nordquist and Markus Schultz 6-4, 6-4. Simon Yitbarek and Dominik Palan also made it to the quarterfinals with a 6-4, 3-6, 10-6 win over Guy Orly Iradukunda and Tuki Jacobs.
