Russian-born Melissa Ifidzhen began her debut for Nigeria on a good note on Monday as she paired Elizabeth Garos-Pam to beat Algerian duo of Saadia Belhadj and Sihem Sahli in the girls doubles of the 38th ITF/CAT African Closed Junior Championship holding in Cairo, Egypt.

The 16-year-old, who was accompanied by her dad to the clay-court tournament, showed great composure and understanding with her London-based partner, Garos-Pam, who is also enjoying the support of her dad at the tournament featuring about 80 players from over 20 countries.

They dispatched their North African opponents 6-0, 6-3 in less than an hour in the first round tie.

However, both players recorded mixed fortunes in their match for glory in the singles as Garos-Pam lost narrowly to Mariam Mujawimana of Burundi 7-6 (6), 6-3 in a close contest while Ifidzhen, due to her point haul on the ITF junior rankings was drawn bye to the second round.

Ifidzhen now faces a tough battle as she confronts Lee Barnard of South Africa for a place in the third round.

The seventh-seeded Barnard did not drop a sweat as she was also drawn bye.

Meanwhile, Nigeria has written to the ITF to effect the country of representation for Melissa as the Muscovite is still having a Russia identity.

President of the Nigeria Tennis Federation (NTF), Engineer Sani Ndanusa stated that “Melissa is still being referred to as a Russian player but we have written to the ITF through her father to effect the change which would be done soon.

“We experienced the same problem when Garos-Pam started playing for us as she is depicted as a British player but it was rectified later.”