Nigeria’s Barakat Quadri on Friday emerged girl’s singles winner of the 2016 ITF West/Central Africa 18 and Under Circuit holding in Lome, Togo, with a 6-2, 6-2 win over seventh seed, Carmine Becoude of Benin Republic.
Quadri had on Wednesday bundled out Spain’s top seed, Jansen Figueras in straight sets and the win at Stade Omnisports capped a memorable two weeks for the 14-year-old Quadri, who also triumphed at the Benin leg of the world junior rankings tournament where she also defeated Becoude 6-0, 6-0 in the final at Stade La’ Amite in Cotonou.
It was her eighth consecutive win at the circuit and quite remarkably, the player whose year-long ITF scholarship in Morocco will run out in November, is yet to lose any set.
Nigeria’s coach Mohammed Ubale attributed Quadri’s impressive outing to her mental strength.
“She knows the court. She knows what to do with the ball coming to her and the one to return unlike most of her opponents who believes so much in power.
“Though its a bit tough for her here in Lome unlike in Cotonou because the focus is a bit on her yet she still pull through. Its not easy to win two straight tournaments and this is a big achievement in her career. She made almost all the other players looked ordinary, including those from Europe and United States.”
The three-leg circuit is featuring over 80 players from different parts of the world including France, Great Britain, Spain, Korea Portugal, India, Malaysia in addition to a host of West African countries.
With the final leg billed to commence on Monday, Quadri will be aiming to become the first player ever to win all the three legs of the circuit.
The closest any player was to achieve the feat was in 2013 when Nigeria’s Joseph Imeh won the opening two legs, but lost in the final of the third leg also held in Benin and Togo.
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