A 22-year-old Nigerian tennis player, Michael Mmoh has enacted an amazing impact at this year’s Australian Open, following his spirited efforts at reaching the third round of the opening grand slam championship in the international calendar, where he won his first ever game.
Megasportsarena.com reports that, after scaling through the first round in only his second outing at this level, Mmoh battled like a Trojan in Wednesday’s game against Roberto Bautista-Agut, during which he won the first set, only to eventually lose in a thrilling encounter.
Mmoh, who is ranked ATP 217, got the biggest test of his career since turning Pro in the Day 2 match against Bautista, who he beat 7-6, 2-6, 6-4 in their previous clash, having earlier knocked at Pablo Andujar in the opening match, wining all three sets, the right handed tennis youngster will be proud of his performance against the world No.9 ranked Bautista.
The youngster, who is listed as an American, won USTA Junior National Championship in 2016 as well as two ATP challenger titles and four ITF Futures gongs, all at age 16, and, now aged 22, the lad, who was born in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia but now lives in Bradenton, Florida, USA produced a very impressive display to defeat world number 63 Andujar 6-1, 6-4, 6-4 for his first ever win at the Australian Open at the third time of asking.
Mmoh was knocked out in the first round of last year’s event as well as in 2017 whilst he failed to qualify in 2018, but was on Wednesday full of confidence after breaking his duck not just in this tournament but also in Grand Slams and, although he had lost all five of his previous games at this level, his maiden win has put him into the second round for the first time.
Born January 10, 1998 in Saudi Arabia, where he lived until the age of 13, the latest tennis whiz-kid to shout about has someone to look up to, as his father, Tony Mmoh was also a professional tennis player who represented Nigeria and reached a career-high ranking of 105.
His mother was born in Ireland but is also an Australian citizen and, although his parents named him after basketball superstar, Michael Jordan, Michael Mmoh began playing tennis at age 3, as he cut his teeth training at IMG Academy in Florida, USA.
Mmoh peaked in the boy’s junior rankings at No. 2, after reaching the semi-finals at the 2015 Junior French Open, then won the 2016 USTA 18s Boys’ National Championship to earn a wild card into the main draw of the Junior US Open.
He enjoyed early success in the ITF Futures tour, winning three titles before turning 18, qualified for his first ATP-level tournament at Memphis in February 2016, but later lost in the first round to eventual finalist Taylor Fritz, who was then the highest ranked American teenager.
Following his fourth Futures title, Mmoh was awarded a wild card into the Miami Masters, where he lost to Sascha Zverev, the top-ranked 18 year-old in the world, after dropping two tie breaks, then broke into the Top 300 for the first time in September 2016 by reaching the final of the ATP Challenger event at Tiburon as a qualifier.
In November 2016, he reached the Top 200 and also won the 2017 Australian Open Wild Card Challenge largely by claiming his first career Challenger title at Knoxville and clinched another Challenger title the following summer at Lexington.
At the start of 2018, Mmoh recorded his first career ATP-level match wins by defeating Federico Delbonis in the first round of the Brisbane International and then world No. 33 Mischa Zverev to make the quarter-finals, then qualified for the first time via ranking in a Grand Slam main draw at the 2019 Australian Open where he lost in the first round to Radu Albot.
It turned out to be a better story at this year’s championship Down Under, as Mmoh got his first main draw victory with a straight sets win over Pablo Andujar, before eventually losing this past midweek’s cracker with Roberto Bautista-Agut.
