Nigerian tennis players, home and abroad, have showered encomium on Marylove Edwards after losing her third match at the Junior Orange Bowl Tennis Championship in Miami to the tournament's number seven seed.
Edwards was the only Nigerian in the tournament and she flew the country's flag high in the girls' U-12 event, but could not make it past her more experienced counterpart in the third round.
The most outstanding junior female player at the recently concluded NCC Tennis League had run riots in her first two matches, defeating Russian and American tennis youngsters in the process, and giving Nigerians something to hope for.
Nigerian tennis players believe that Marylove Edwards has better days ahead of her...
Nigerian Tennis Live had reported the player's progress in the championship and her fans had hoped that she would create an unlikely upset when she played against Priya Nelson, but she could not weather the storm and lost after battling so much.
And as their own way of encouraging the young player never to give up after losing her third match, tennis players hailed her performance and asked her to keep trying. Under the post on Facebook about her loss to the American player, the Nigerians commended Edwards and asked her to keep getting better.
According to Blessing Anuna, a US-based Nigerian female tennis star, wrote: "Keep pressing on Marylove, don't give up, don't feel you lost anything, don't think failure, is your stepping stone. Keep handing in, you will get there, you will make us proud by God's grace, Amen."
In his own comment, Moses Okugbo stated that Edwards put up an outstanding performance. he said: "Great performance dear Marylove." Dubai-based Samuel Omoile, while also congratulating the Nigerian starlet, encouraged her coaches to chance her double forehand to singlehanded forehand. He wrote: "Great news on Marylove, but they need to see the possibilities of switching her to a single handed forehand" just as Yusuf Gyallesu noted that the loss was a part of her learning process and wished the player better days ahead.
