Top seeds involved in the first round of the Pretoria open wheelchair tennis tournament all headed through to the second stage of the tournament after wins on Sunday at the Rientondale tennis club.

It was pretty much smooth sailing for all the top seeds at this International Tennis Federation (ITF) futures event. Men’s top seed and defending championLeon Els won comfortably after a magnificent display despite a broken chair during his second match.

Those looking for upsets on the soil of Pretoria were disappointed as the Pretoria open kicked off on Sunday. Els, Australian Oh-Chee Keegan, Nico Langmann of Austria, the country’s women top seed Mariska Venter and French lady Christine Schoenn all comfortably booked their places for the next round.

Els overcame his countryman Letsoalo Geoffrey to win in straight sets 6-1, 6-0 and advanced to the second round. After a short rest, the 27-year-old saw off Port Elizabeth’s Marshall Marsh who made him work hard to win the match in three sets 6-3, 3-6 and 6-2.

“I took the first set easily but struggled in the second set after my chair broke and lost it 3-6 but I worked hard and came back to take the deciding set 6-2. There was a lot of drama in the match. The first set was very competitive but I managed to pull through. In the last set I made adjustments on the chair I borrowed and I was able to move around with it and emerged victorious,” said Els.

Second seed Oh-Chee Keegan and third seed Langmann also won comfortably, beating Atsu Maclean and Benito Vuma respectively in straight sets. In the women’s tournament, former world number one junior player Mariska Venter had no trouble defeating her compatriot Nosipho Hlatswayo in straight sets 6-0 and 6-0. Second seed Christine Schoenn of France was another lady to advance into the next round after eliminating South Africa’s Wendy Hlongwane who enjoyed her opener win early on Sunday over Ghana’s Bernice Frimpong. Schoenn knocked out Hlongwane in three sets 6-4 5-7 6-3.