Gregory Gumbs

For all Gregory Gumbs fans (and I know there's many), it's bad news, Gregory Gumbs lost.

Candy Idoko, cheered on by his brothers and sisters (Blessing Mary, Peace, Magrat, Simon Cornilus and Helen), had the unenviable task of taking on last year's runner-up, Valentin Sanon.  Blessing Mary got so raucous at one stage, Peace had to tranquillise her with a bottle of ammonia that Simon Cornilus happily supplied.  Helen looked shocked.  Magrat looked ashamed.  Sanon won the match.  Candy cried.

Sanon plays Moroccan, Ali El Alaoui, in Round 2.

2nd round round-up

For yet another year Senegali hopes have disintegrated too early.  Charlie Villeneuve overwhelmed Salif "The Future" Kante, 6-1 6-3.  The STA's Bruce Woolagaroo has been put under increasing pressure to resign.  But has since taken his opponent's knight in exchange for a pawn, putting him right back in the game.  Aaron Krickstein is still yet to comment.

Komvali Loglo's form was once again breathtaking in his 6-4 6-2 destruction of that old warhorse, Gregory Howe of Gert Briton.  Stylishly, Loglo left the court astride a white stallion waving imperiously to his awestruck fans, as trumpet-players and dancers celebrated the finery of his win.  In contrast, poor Howe was left, presumably, to head straight for the knackers yard.

Burkina Faso have a quarterfinalist for the first time since 1990, as Aboubacar Sigue waltzed past Israeli, Saar Steele, 6-2 6-2.  Tap Hacs jubilantly spouted, "The Faso angels fall bestrewn by Jewish impawns. Hark! Dust Gabriel call."  It's possible that Hacs could find himself in serious trouble with this outburst, some suspecting anti-Semitism. Although this is highly unlikely, as nobody I've spoke to understood a single word he was going on about.  After his win, Sigue said, "Surely Woolagaroo should have played Bishop to Queen's Knight Five!  The man's a fool!  It would've paralysed white's pieces on the kingside!  He should resign straight away!"

The 5th seed, Rudy Coco manoeuvred past Benin's Didavi 6-1 4-6 6-1.  The number of Rudy Coco's fans is increasing by the minute.  It is now very hard to walk anywhere in Dakar, without hearing the "Coco Pops" (as his fans are calling themselves) screaming "Rudy Coco!!" at the top of their voices.  "Rudy Coco!!"

Also in the second round, the pride of the Côte d'Ivoirie, Valentin Sanon, looked to be struggling for form in his 7-5 7-6 win over El Alaoui.  The match was marred by angry protesting custard makers who splattered Sanon during the warm-up with a particularly sticky type of custard.  This will now make many tennis players think twice before criticising dairy products of the future, which I personally think is a very sad thing.

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The quarterfinals happened on Friday.

Sorry, I missed them, the funfair came to Dakar, and I just can't resist a ride on the dodgems.  And I won a big fluffy warthog in the Guess-The-Name-Of-The-Donkey competition.  Her name was Ludwig.  Superb guess don't you think, she just had that Ludwigian look about her.  I bought 4 sticks of Dakar rock to take home as pressies, won a shovel-nosed toad on the hoopla, and had a ride on the ghost train with Preg Rusevski, which scared him to death - the big wuss.  But sadly, I missed a full days play at the tennis.  Oh, and the candyfloss was fantastic!  But isn't it always.




-- Edited by Akhenaten at 14:27, 2007-09-17

Has Anyone else noticed than maniel bains turned up in qualifying and was unlucky not to qualify and he is in the semi final of the doubles. Is he a prospect?

Maniel is a hard worker on the match court but has got a poor reputation due to some gamesmanship & mental games. I have found him ok when I have met him but he has to many faults in his game to be  top contender, although I hope I am wrong...we need more & more guys breaking through!

I hope fulford-jones gets another ranking point next week, i like his determination lol.