Darko still Ghana’s number one seed
Even without featuring in the second of the six National Tennis Ranking, All Africa Games gold medalist George Darko still remains the national number one seed.
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Darko missed out on last week’s ranking at the 4 Garrison Officers Tennis Club tournament which ended in Kumasi last Saturday. The youngster is currently in the USA for a tournament.
With what appears an unassailable points build-up of 2,390 points, Darko may still not have to panic even if he fails to feature in the next edition in May.
The tournament was won by Pascal Ziyab who beat Benjamin Fumi 6-3, 6-1, but it was not enough to topple Darko from the top position.
The results, however, pushes Pascal to the third position while Fumi Slumps to the fourth position. But Wisdom Na-Adjrago, who was overpowered by the eventual winner. Pascal at the semi-finals, maintained his number two position.
Indeed, the first four top ranked players currently form the core of the national squad, the Golden Rackets, and were the same players who gave Ghana her first All Africa Games gold medal at the last games.
The top 10-ranked players are Kwabena Ofosu Bamfo, Daniel Anum Quartey, Bernard Armaah, Isaac Titriku, Francis Akpese and Stephen Nortey.
Former national national tennis star, Jeff Bagerbaseh, who is also a student of Kumasi Polytechnic gave up at the quarter-final stage but expressed the hope of making it into the top 10 by November this year.
The last four competitions have been slated for the first weeks of May, July, September and November.
In all, 50 players across the country featured in the rankings, which was sponsored by Ismaila Tennis & Sports Shop, the official agent of Babolat in Ghana, and supported by McDan Shipping Company Limited.
According to the referee for the tournament, Abubakari Yakubu-Lea, the results of the ‘Babolat National Ranking Tournament’ will be forwarded to the International Tennis Federation for international ranking this week.