Angella Okutoyi intensifies chase for Olympics slot in USA
Kenya's Angella Okutoyi celebrates a point against Lu Jia-Jing of China during their ITF Women World Tennis Tour second round singles match on December 13, 2023 at Karen Country Club.
Angella Okutoyi on Friday continued her hunt for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games ticket by collecting eight crucial points at the W35 Boca Raton tournament in Florida, USA.
One week after getting two points by reaching the second round of the qualifying draw at W75 Charlottesville in Virginia, World no.549 Okutoyi, who was seeded fifth, was stopped by American top seed Alexandra “Allie” Kiick (332) 6-1, 6-0 in the W35 Boca Raton quarter-final to exit with eight points.
Okutoyi needs at least 65 points to safely enter the top 400 in the WTA Singles rankings by June 10 to qualify for the Paris 2024 Games.
Her match with Kiick lasted 59 minutes on the clay courts of One Tennis Academy.
The first set took 25 minutes after Kiick came from one game down to win the next six after breaking four serves from Okutoyi and also won all her 10 first serves.
Okutoyi, 20, had begun strongly, including notching two aces, but had no answers when Kiick,28, levelled 1-1 after breaking two back-to-back serves from the African Games women’s singles champion. Despite putting on a spirited fight, the 2022 Kenya Open and Rwanda Open winner was no match for Kiick in the second set. The two were meeting for the second time after Kiick outclassed Okutoyi 6-0, 6-4 in the W35 Naples semi-finals in Florida in January this year.
Okutoyi overpowered Sherif 2-1 in the African Games semi-final before dispatching another Egyptian, Lamis Alhussein, in straight sets in the final.
