Ahenkora wins VC's open tennis competition cup

Twenty-one-year-old Kwesi Ahenkora on Sunday won the maiden Vice-Chancellor's (VC) open tennis competition at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) senior staff club's court in Kumasi when he beat Patrick Nortey of Accra Golden Tulip tennis club by two straight sets 6-2, 7-5 in the men's singles final match.

Nortey who had earlier on lost to Ahenkora in four previous encounters and was seeking revenge, rather found the Davies cup player a hard nut to crack, as he had no answers to most of his forehand shots which he volleyed into the net.

Ahenkora who started his career in Kumasi some years ago, but decided to move camp to Accra, dismissed the bluff of his opponents in just about 50 minutes to win the giant VC's cup and the one million-cedi cash prize at stake whilst Nortey took home 700,000 cedis as the second prize.

Emmanuel Holm of the Royal Ravico tennis club in Accra had it easy ousting Edmund Quarcoo of Accra Golden Tulip tennis club and consequently took home 450,000 cedis as the third prize while Quarcoo took home 350,000 cedis as the fourth prize.

The pairing of Ahenkora and Nortey vis-?-vis Robert Botwe of Accra Golden Tulip and Zakari Mohammed of Ashanti tennis club in the men's doubles final was a total mis-match, as the former took the first set 6-0, the latter scratched in the early stages of the first game in the second set.

With that feat, Ahenkora and Nortey were given 500,000 cedis as the first prize, 350,000 cedis as the second prize for Botwe and Zakari whilst 225,000 cedis each was given as third and fourth prizes to Stephen Mensah of KNUST who paired Stephen Lamptey of Accra American Apartment Tennis Club, and Emmanuel Holm who paired Edmund Quarcoo respectively, though they could not honour their third place match.

In the women's singles final match, Ivy Aryeetey confirmed her superiority in women's tennis in the country by outplaying all her opponents enroute to the finals and clinched the first prize on Sunday when she defeated Kate Coleman, also a national tennis player, by two straight sets 6-4, 6-4.

For her prize, the 18-year-old national women's tennis team top seed, took home 500,000 cedis with Coleman receiving 300,000 cedis as the second prize whilst Nana Esi Amoah of KNUST took the third prize of 200,000 cedis for beating Rosemary Martey of Ashanti Tennis Club, who had 100,000 cedis as her fourth prize.

The third place match which was played in only a set ended 6-4 in favour of the KNUST tennis player, who was also using the four-day competition as preparation towards the 11th West Africa Inter-University Games (WAUG) slated for Burkina Faso in December this year.