YOUNGSTER HOPES TO PUT TOGO ON TENNIS MAP

Associated Press
Sep. 3, 2002 6:23 p.m.

NEW YORK (AP) — Togo is definitely not a world power in tennis. Komlavi Apedo Loglo is out to change that.
With a quick, warm smile, Loglo switches easily between French, English and two African languages, Ewe and Mina. Spanish is a little more difficult for him, but only because he's traveling so much.

But it's his tennis, not his language skills, that has brought Loglo to the U.S. Open.

On Tuesday, the 17-year-old right-hander easily won his first-round junior boy's match, ousting Tai-Wei Liu of Chinese Taipei 6-4, 6-2. Last year, he also reached the second round on the hard courts of the National Tennis Center.

A native of Lome, the capital of Togo - a West African country bordering Ghana, Benin and Burkina Faso - Loglo currently lives and trains in Barcelona, Spain, when he's not circling the globe playing tournaments.

He was runnerup earlier this year at the Italian Junior Open and the Tourneo Internazionale, also in Italy. In the past year he also reached the semifinals at the Eddie Herr and Orange Bowl, two tournaments in southern Florida, as well as the Astrid Bowl in Belgium. And there was that runnerup finish at the African Closed Junior Championships.

The youngest of seven children, Komlavi grew up playing tennis. He and two of his five brothers - Jean-Kome, 25, and Gerard, 23 - make up Togo's Davis Cup team.

"When I was small, I used to play my brothers," Loglo said quietly. "Two years ago I lost to Gerard in a satellite tournament in South Africa. Now I believe I can beat him."

Another brother, Omer, is a member of Togo's national soccer team, while Vincent plays basketball and Maurice plays tennis, but not on the same level as the other brothers.

Against Liu, Loglo repeatedly followed his serve to the net for winning volleys. It's his style, he said.

"In Africa, everyone plays serve-and-volley because all of the good players play serve-and-volley," he said. "The courts are faster."

In Wednesday's second round, Loglo will play 11th-seeded Dudi Sela of Israel, a 6-2, 6-4 winner over Michael Ryderstedt of Sweden.

© 2002 FOX Interactive Television, LLC. All rights reserved.

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