Olufunmilayo, Abdulazeez shine at 3rd Vitrano squash tourney

Nigeria’s top-ranked players, Gabriel Olufunmilayo and Rofiat Abdulazeez emerged champions of the third Vitrano Squash Closed Satellite Tournament which was held last Friday, NewsNGR Sports Extra reports.

Organised by the Nigeria Squash Federation, the Squash Section of the Lagos Lawn Tennis Club played host to the tournament which saw both players ease to comfortable victories over Abel Shedrack and Faidat Soliu respectively in the finals.

The five-day championship attracted the best players around the country with new faces also emerging in the highly competitive World Squash Federation and Professional Squash Association Satellite Tour event which enables players to earn ranking points.

In the men’s final, Olufunmilayo defeated Shedrack 3-0 (11-5, 11-4, 11-6) under 26 minutes while Abdulazeez took just 15 minutes to dispatch Soliu, winning the women’s final 3-0 (11-3, 11-6,11-3).

President of the Nigeria Squash Federation, Boye Oyerinde, highlighted the growth of the sport in Nigeria with the emergence of new players.

“Normally, you will have players that are already playing outside of the country in the finals but now we have new players. It is growth and we are happy about these new players that are coming up and this is good for the sport. It’s been our dream to have younger players coming up,” Oyerinde said.

Chairman of Lagos State Squash Association, Tomi Falase who is also the captain of the squash section of the Lagos Lawn Tennis Club, expressed optimism about the future of junior players who competed against the senior players.

“We had one or two upsets and we had juniors challenging the seniors and that changed the entire schedule.”

Vice President of Lagos Lawn Tennis Club, Ladi Olatunde commended the quality of competition and expressed the readiness of the prestigious club to stage more events to enhance players’ development.