NamibiaÅ? Jurgens Strydom got off to a winning start in the first round of the ITF F1 Futures Tennis Tournament in Windhoekon Monday, October 29.
Playing against the eighth-seeded Candy Idoko of Nigeria, Strydom comfortably won the first set 6-3.
Strydom lost his concentration in the second set and Idoko stepped up a gear in the second set to race into a 4-1 and then 5-2 lead.
Strydom however made a great fightback to win the second set 7-5 to win the match and progress to the second round.
It was a fine comeback by Strydom against Idoko, who is ranked 952nd in the world.
Strydom will now meet a qualifier, Henrik Soderberg of Sweden in the second round. Soderberg yesterday beat another qualifier, Jean Zietsman of Germany 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 in their first round encounter.
The ITF Futures Tournament is being sponsored by the International Tennis Federation to an amount of US$6 000. Players from various countries are participating in the tournament with the hope of collecting valuable ATP points. Some of the competing players represent countries like the United States, France, Russia, Great Britain, Italy, South Africa, Austria, Israel and Madagascar.
There were a number of upsets in other first round matches on Monday.
The unseeded Nicolas Grammare of France beat the fourth seeded Paul Warkentin of the United States 6-4, 6-3.
Matthias Dorfler of Germany, who had to qualify for the main draw, beat the fifth seeded Mark Idan of Israel 6-3, 6-3.
Benjamin Janse van Rensburg of South Africa beat the seventh seed, Bertram Steinberger of Austria, 6-4, 6-3.
The second seed, Edward Seator of Great Britain, who is ranked 608th in the world, was pushed to three sets before beating a qualifier, Milos Sekulic of Sweden 6-3, 2-6, 6-1.
The sixth seeded Claudio Grassi of Italy beat a qualifier, Kevin McDuffee 6-0, 6-1, while Lofo Ramiaramanan of Madagascar beat Nikos Serkedakis of Greece 6-2, 6-2.
In a doubles match, the top seeds Claudio Grassi and Matteo Volante of Italy beat Martin Hromec of Slovakia and Andrei Stoliarov of Russia 7-5, 7-5.
The tournament continues at the National Tennis Stadium in Olympia on October 30 with the finals scheduled to take place on Friday morning.