By Hosea Parah
Nigeria’s Oluwaseun Ogunsakin has seen his dream run at the US Open Junior Championships come to an end after the Aurum Tennis Academy player was knocked out in the second round by South Africa’s Connor Doig at Flushing Meadows.
Doig defeated the Nigerian 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 in a hard-fought contest to bring the curtain down on Ogunsakin’s campaign at the final junior Grand Slam of the year.
The South African took control early to win the opening set 6-2, but Ogunsakin fought back impressively to level matters, taking the second set 6-4, and forcing a decider. Doig, however, found another gear in the closing stages, closing out the match 6-3 to advance to the next round.
Despite the disappointment of the defeat, Ogunsakin’s run to the second round represented another significant milestone in his rapid rise on the junior circuit this year.
The teenager had to first come through qualifying to reach the main draw, defeating Poland’s Tymon Litwic 6-3, 6-0 and then top seed Felix Roussel of Canada 6-3, 6-4 to book his place among the world’s best junior players.
Once in the main draw, Ogunsakin went on to record his first Grand Slam main-draw victory, coming from a set down to defeat 15th seed Kuan-Shou Chen of Chinese Taipei 5-7, 6-3, 7-5 in a gritty opening-round win that underlined his growing composure on the big stage.
The US Open was the third junior Grand Slam Ogunsakin featured in this year, following appearances at the French Open and Wimbledon, where he reached the main draw of the boys’ singles and the semi-finals of the doubles event, a historic run in the United Kingdom that first announced his talent on the international stage.
His participation across all three Grand Slam junior events this year marks another step forward in the teenager’s development, as he continues to gain valuable experience against some of the leading junior players in the world.
Ogunsakin will now turn his attention to the next phase of his season, with his exit from Flushing Meadows unlikely to dim what has been a breakthrough year on the international junior circuit.