Moses, Melissa dominate CBN tennis Open

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By; AYO OJEDOKUN, Lagos.
The duo of Michael Moses and Russian based Melissa Ifidzen have emerged Champions of the just concluded 38th edition of the central Bank of Nigeria Senior open Tennis Championship for men and women single categories.
In the Men’s Singles category, last year’s runners-up Michael Moses defeated Sylvester Emmanuel 6-4, 1-6, 6-3 in the final decided at the Tennis court of the National Stadium, Surulere Lagos, even as Melissa went back to Russia smiling by retaining the title she won last year.
Seeded no 2 behind last year’s winner, Thomas Otu, Moses won the first set 6-4 but dropped his guards in the second set which he lost 1-6 only for him to bounce back in the third and final set of the match which he won 6-3 to lift the 38th CBN trophy and cash prize of N700,000.
For the women’s final earlier decided, the defending champion and tournament no. 2 seed, Melissa Ifidzen, successfully defended her crown having defeated last year’s runners-up and tournament top seed, Christy Agugbom 6-3, 6-2 to retain her title, thus winning  back to back. She also pocketed the sum of N700,000 prize money that goes with the trophy.
It was indeed a sweet and fulfilled 38th CBN senior tournament for Melissa who also paired with Sarah Adegoke to win the women’s Doubles trophy by beating the pair of Christy Agugbom (her women’s Singles victim) and Blessing Samuel 6-0, 6-2 in the final decided soon after the women’s singles final.
The final men’s Doubles title went to 2013 champions, Abdulmumuni Babalola and Shehu Lawal who rediscovered their winning formulae by defeating the pair of Michael Moses and Christian Paul in the final.
Declaring the event closed, the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele who was represented by the Director of Capacity Development Department of the CBN, Mrs. Chizoba Mojekwu, gave kudos to the players especially the finalists who are just graduating to the senior ranks for displaying exceptional skills.
Emefiele reaffirmed the CBN’s commitment towards development and promotion of sports, especially tennis in Nigeria through the continuous sponsorship of the annual CBN Senior Open and Junior Tennis Circuit as could be seen from the just concluded 10th edition which took place last month in Kaduna.

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