Tere-Apisah continues winning way in Singapore

Sports

By PETER PUSAL
ABIGAIL Tere-Apisah has advanced to the quarterfinals of the ITF Singapore Women’s 25K after beating Russian Angelina Gabueva in the second round on Wednesday.
The 26-year-old, who won her first professional title on the ITF World Tour last week at the same venue, won 7-6 (4), 6-4 and before that had beaten Singapore’s Tammy Tan 6-0, 6-1.
Tere-Apisah, who is a finalist for the Female Athlete of the Year award in tomorrow’s 2019 SP Awards in Port Moresby, said coming off her first pro win was satisfying but her focus was on completing her tournaments and looking toward’s July’s Pacific Games.
“I have two more weeks of tournaments lined up; this week in Singapore and next week in Hong Kong,” Tere-Apisah said.
“Depending on how I do these next two weeks, will kind of determine where I will go next after the Pacific Games.
“So I am keeping my options open.”
Tere-Apisah, who is part Morobe and Central, said having her family’s support had been a motivating factor in her performance as had been the knowledge that she was the only Papua New Guinean competing on the tour.
“I’ve come to this point in my career where I’m not only doing this for myself or my country, but also for my mum and dad,” she said.
“Well, because they’ve invested lot of time, money and energy in my career, basically my whole life and because of them, I get to play the sport I love, travel the world and hopefully inspire young PNG athletes.”
The tournament prizemoney is US$25,000 (K84,322) and a second win in Singapore would take Tere-Apisah’s earnings to just under K170,000.
“I just would like to thank my sponsors, my family, friends and everyone in and out of PNG who have supported me throughout the week and throughout my whole career.
“Your kind messages really motivate me. So thank you.”