Italy's Gioia Barbieri, was the surprise star of the women's singles at this year's Governor's Cup Lagos Tennis Championship having stopped top seed, Tadeja Majeric of Slovenia in the semi finals and defeated second seed Nina Bratchikova in the final played on Saturday.
Bratchikova, a former Governor's Cup winner and an Australian Open player, who also played in the second round of the 2013 US Open, could not finish her match against the in-form unseeded Italian star as she bowed to an aggravated knee injury in the third set of the women's singles final which ended 3-6,6-3,3-0 (rtd).
Barbieri described her victory as a deserving one, adding: "I'm happy to have won this championship because it is worth every second that I spent in Lagos in the last two weeks. Nina played better than I did in the first set and that got me scared but I did not lose hope. Finally, I won and I'm the undisputed champion. I'm going to Chinese Taipei after leaving Lagos."
Coming from a disappointing loss in the final of Men's Singles of Futures 1, Croatian No. 4 seed, Ante Pavic was too much for the tournament's No. 2, Indian Jeevan Neduchezayan in the men's singles final as he won in two straight sets 6-4, 6-3.
Pavic, who lost the final of the first leg to his compatriot, world's junior tennis champion, Dorna Coric, said "I think I played very well against Jeevan because he is also technically sound. I guess my patience paid off at the end.
"It has been two weeks of total enjoyment here in the city of Lagos and I really enjoyed every moment I spent. There is no doubt that I will come to this great city again because the Governor's Cup and Lagos will always be in my history book."
Meanwhile, the finals of the inaugural Governor's Cup Junior Tennis were a delight to watch. Martins Abamu beat Michael Osewa in two straight sets of 4-1,6-4 to win the male category, while twin sisters, Destiny and Essence Martins slugged it out in the female category, but it was Destiny who won 1-4,4-2,10-5.