Barry Silah @obel_barry

Tennis Kenya’s last event of the calendar started off with a bang in the Junior Challenge Series 4 at the Nairobi Club yesterday in the round-robin championships.

In the boys doubles match up of the day, the pair of Faruk Juma and Gilbert Omitsa overpowered James Kang’ethe and Benjamin Tekeo in straight sets of 6-3/6-0.

The dominant performance by the former send them to the second round where they face off against Reesh Haria and Sahib Chana in what is expected to be a closely fought encounter.

Juma’s serve and Omitsa’s returns were too powerful for the challengers who had little stamina and made several mistakes on the net.

The winning duo had raced to a 4-0 lead inside 20 minutes of the start but the opponents found their groove in a somewhat crazy fashion breaking the victors thrice before folding up in the fifth game.

However, in the second set, Faruk and Omitsa made less errors and controlled proceedings solidly in between points.

“It is a good start and we want to continue this way. In the coming matches we might want to adjust a few things,” stated Faruk.

In the girls doubles, Faith Urasa alongside Reha Kipsang were 6-2/6-0 winners over Azam Rajab and Magdalene Witaba.

The duel started slowly before hotting up as the eventual victors started dictating play with good communication.

The more experienced Urasa was in good space with her partner, also effective enough with either serve or return.

At the same time, their cover of the court was exceptional. In the second set,Rajab and Witaba lost strength and made way too many mistakes.

Urasa expressed happiness after a good run-out on the court: “I am happy with how we played generally and indeed I loved our partnership play.”