Kenya's Okutoyi up against tough rivals at Nairobi tourney
Kenya's Angella Okutoyi in action against Indian qualifier Priyanshi Bhandari in the W35 Nairobi tennis tournament at Nairobi Club on January 1, 2025. Okutoyi won 6-1, 6-0 to enter the second round.
What you need to know:
- In doubles semis, unseeded Okutoyi/Nagomi Higashitani have a date with top seeds Sada Nahimana (Burundi) and Rinon Okuwaki (Japan).
- Okutoyi and Japanese partner Higashitani hammered Ashmitha Easwaramurthi (India)/Lexue Xiao (China) 6-0, 6-4 in the doubles quarter-finals.
African Games women’s Angella Okutoyi will play two tough matches at the W35 Nairobi tennis tournament on Nairobi Club clay courts on Friday.
Okutoyi will meet top-seed Joanna Garland from Chinese Taipei at 10am in one of the singles quarter-finals. The winner will play either German qualifier Lorena Schaedel or Frenchwoman Alyssa Reguer in the semi-final.
Garland thrashed Yashaswini Panwar from India 6-1, 6-1 in the round of 16.
Okutoyi qualified for the quarters with a hard-earned come-from-behind 2-6, 6-4, 6-3 victory against Zuzanna Pawlikowska from Poland in two hours and 25 minutes.
“The first set against Pawlikowska wasn’t so great. I wasn’t making balls and she wasn’t giving me time. But l trusted my game more on the second set onwards and just played smart with small margins since in the first set l was missing a lot deep like close to the line. I also adjusted my steps more on the return which helped a lot,” said Okutoyi after seeing off Pawlikowska.
She noted that when she missed a lot on the first serve, she tried going for the second serve with more spin that flat to make her earn her point and not give free points.
“Additionally, I just kept fighting for each and every point,” said Okutoyi.
Kenya's Angella Okutoyi reacts during her match against Indian qualifier Priyanshi Bhandari in the W35 Nairobi tennis tournament at Nairobi Club on January 1, 2025.
The other singles semi-final will involve the winner of Francesca Pace (Italy) versus fourth-seeded Lian Tran (France) and German eighth-seeded Sina Herrmann vs Monika Stankiewicz (Poland).
In doubles semi-final fixtures, unseeded Okutoyi/Nagomi Higashitani have a date with top seeds Sada Nahimana (Burundi) and Rinon Okuwaki (Japan) as Reguer (France)/Vicky Van de Peer (Belgium) takes on Wanjala/Youri from 12:30pm.
African Games doubles silver medalists Okutoyi and Cynthia Wanjala Cheruto qualified for doubles semi-finals after winning quarter-final matches with their respective partners at Nairobi Club on Thursday.
Okutoyi and Japanese partner Higashitani hammered Ashmitha Easwaramurthi (India)/Lexue Xiao (China) 6-0, 6-4 in the doubles quarter-finals.
Okutoyi/Higashitani, who won this tournament in December 2023, amassed most of their points from serves and converted six break points against their opponents’ two in the match that lasted one hour and 15 minutes.
Wanjala, who was eliminated in singles by Easwaramurthi in the first round on Wednesday, sailed into doubles semi-finals with Botswana partner Ekua Youri without breaking a sweat after earning a walkover against Pawlikowska (Poland)/Francesca Pace (Italy).
The W35 tournament is the ninth tier in women's professional tennis, a step above the lowest level (W15). The W35 singles winner with a main draw of 32 players collects 35 points, finalist (23), semi-finalists (14 apiece), and quarter-finalists (eight each).
Doubles ranking points for a W5 event have 35 points for the winners, 23 (finalists), 14 (semi-finalists), eight (quarter-finalists), and one (round of 16).
