Sylvester Emmanuel’s hopes of getting into the main draws of this week’s ITF Futures event in Monastir, Tunisia, crashed after the 20-year-old Nigerian retired midway through the second set in the final round of qualifying against Frenchman, Amaury Delmas on Monday.
Emmanuel, fresh off a sensational title-winning run at the Vemp Open in Abuja last week, arrived Tunisia in great form. However, as a result of his ranking, he had to go through the qualifying rounds to feature in the main draws.
With incredible aplomb the Nigerian ticked through the first and second rounds, defeating Italy’s Marco Corino 6-4, 6-4 and Frenchman, Simon Musset 6-3, 3-6, 6-2, to reach the final round.
In the final round on Monday, Emmanuel trailed Amaury Delmas after failing to get the early initiative in the first set and then retired due to an ankle injury in the second while he was 5-7, 0-3 down.
“It wasn’t easy to retire from my match today due to injury on my ankle, but thank God for everything, Coming back strong and better,” Emmanuel stated in a post on Social Media.
Currently ranked second in Nigeria, Emmanuel will now set his sights on a speedy recovery in preparation for the second leg and more importantly, the Lagos Open, a $100,000 ITF Pro Circuit tournament, which will serve off in a fortnight in Lagos, Nigeria.
