Ninth seed, Abayomi Philips worked his way through to the quarterfinals of ITF/CAT Circuit Junior De L’Afrique De L’Ouest after overcoming Ghana’s Johnson Acquah in three sets at the AAT Club in Lome on Wednesday.
Philips didn’t have it all rosy, as he had to recover from a lapse in concentration in the second set before going on to seal a 7-5, 3-6, 6-1 victory.
The 17-year-old Nigerian had toughed out a first set win, but Acquah cast aside the setback and made a big improvement to take the second set and force a decider. The tournament’s 8th seed, however, had no answers to Philips imposing play in the final set, as the Nigerian rediscovered his form to power to victory and stretch his match-winning run to 7 matches.
Philips, who clinched the GTFLifetime Open title in Accra last week, will look to keep his back-to-back ITF Junior title hopes alive when he takes on No.1 seed, Aaryan Zaveri of India for a place in the semifinals on Thursday.
Zaveri, who has yet to drop a set, eased past Seydina Andre of Senegal 6-4, 6-2.
Meanwhile, Emmanuel Jebutu was beaten 7-6(3), 6-2 by No.4 seed, Wamba Ngouadjio of Cameroon.
However, Jebutu would make progress in the boys’ doubles category, advancing to the semifinals after he and his partner, Kodio Charles of Togo, edged the pair of Abayomi Philips and Vence N’tcha for a tight 7-6(4), 7-6(4) victory.
Jebutu and Charles will take on the Beninese duo of Dylan Bruce and Mariano Kpodeziaou for a place in the final.