Doubles action enters quarter final stages today following a series of matches played yesterday at Nairobi Club.
In the morning session, the doubles duo of Kevin Cheruiyot and Albert Njogu cruised to a straight sets win of 6-2/6-4 over Sahib Chana and Alvin Kimathi in a good toss-up game.
The experienced duo coordinated well and interchanged shots perfectly against their opponents. The first set had lots of rallies between the pairs but also rare occasions of aces from either side.
The second set was far more competitive and almost close in terms of fighting for points.The Chana and Kimathi duo went in hard and at certain moments forced the challengers to make mistakes on return but other than that the eventual winners withstood the test. In another Men’s doubles event,the fourth seeding pair of Raymond Oduor and Baraka Ominde had to dig deep in their three set win of 4-6/6-2/10-7 over the pair of Kennedy Ngoiya and Patrick Ochieng.
It took great character from coming down a set to fight back with grit and purpose. Oduor was excellent with his deep hard serves while Ominde was more alive in the returns department and present to counter at the net.
The opponents were guilty for a couple of unforced errors of their own which cost them valuable points.In the decider after a 1-1 tie,it was all’s see-saw but the victors to be were more ready for the battle.
In the Women Doubles run, Kenya’s Alicia Owegi and Stacy Yego saw off the duo Katarina Karanja and Laura Baensch in straight sets of 7-6(6)/6-1 at centre court yesterday afternoon.
The winners had to endure some challenge in the opening set which eventually had to be determined via a close tie-break.
