Vucic, VanderDuim for Dayak/ITF Futures 1st Leg Finals

The number four seed of the Dayak ITf Futures tournament Antal Van Der Duim of The Netherlands yesterday defeated number one seed David Perez Sanz of Spain 6-3,6-3 , 7-5 to qualify for the first leg  finals of the event .

Currently ranked 299 by the International Tennis federation (ITF), Vander Duim  won the first leg of the Tombim Futures last month at the Centre Court of the National stadium Abuja  after beating Egyptian and Africa’s number three and tournament number two seed, Mohammed Safwat, will take on Ilija Vucic of Serbia ranked 1066.

Vucic who came into the futures just last week as an underdog played his way into the main draws and eventually sent out Safwat in the second semi-finals 7-5, 4-6, 6-4 in an interesting match at the centre court which lasted over three hours. Many had given the game to Safwat even before the match started but he played a mind game against Safwat to take the game. Safawat had beaten Vucic five times against Vucic two wins including last week’s second round loss to the Egyptian in the Tombim second leg tournament also in Abuja.

Interestingly no Nigerian player made it to the second round of the Futures even as Moses Michael Balami Umoru lost their matches on Tuesday. They will now try again next week when the final leg of the Dayak/ITF Futures would be rounded off in Abuja

The duo of Nicolas Meister  of the United States ranked 720 by ITF and David Perez of Spain also yesterday won their match against the pair of Pirmin Haenle of Germany and Hunter Reese of the United states 6-4, 6-4. They will now take on the winner of the David Pael/Antal Van Der Duim and Karim Mohammed Maamoun and Vucic in the second semi-final.

The first semi-final was shifted for yesterday evening following Thursday’s rain. Pel and Van Der Duim won the first set 6-4 before the Tournament referee Patrick Kamuhia of Kenya called it off.