History-making Okutoyi, Nahimana win W25 double title

Kenya’s Angella Okutoyi and her Burundian partner Sada Nahimana on Friday won the doubles title at the ITF Women’s World Tennis Tour (W25) tournament at the Nairobi Club.

The victory was the perfect warm-up for Okutoyi ahead of her singles final showdown against Lena Papadakis on Saturday at the same venue.

The Kenya Open 2018 and 2022 champion Okutoyi beat Lucie Nguyen Tan in the semi-finals of the singles tournament on Friday and will face Papadakis at 10am.

Papadakis shocked eighth-seed Fanny Ostlund 7-6, 6-2 in the other semi-final.

Over an hour after punching the final ticket in singles, Okutoyi teamed up with Burundian Nahimana to stun third seeds Jessie Aney (USA)/ Lena Papadakis (Germany) 6-4, 3-6, 10-7 to clinch the doubles crown.

The East Africans came from behind three times in the first set to level at 4-4 and then won at breakpoint in the ninth game before getting an ace in the final game to bag the set.

The second set swung in favour of Aney/Papadakis, who raced to 3-0, managing to subdue their unseeded opponents, enroute to clinching it 6-3.

Okutoyi/Nahimana trailed 3-1 in the decisive set, but did not give up the fight. They staged a fightback, leveled at 3-3, then trailed by one game before leading for the first time at 6-5. They kept amassing points to cruise out of danger and clinched the set to wrap up the match.

It is the first ever women’s USD25,000 (Sh3.8 million) title for Okutoyi and the first with Nahimana.

Okutoyi, the 2022 Junior Wimbledon Doubles champion, is also the first Kenyan to win a professional tennis title since Paul Wekesa achieved the feat at Andorra Challenger in 1994. She got that piece of history when she won the women's event in Monastir in Tunisia in July this year.

“I feel like I was the aggressive player today and dictated the points pretty well. And, I just kept my composure well, too. This win means a lot to me because after two silver medals, I have the gold now. Hard work really pays,” said Okutoyi after winning her matches yesterday.

Auburn University in the USA,where she is on a full tennis scholarship since January, congratulated Okutoyi after the victory.

She is pursuing a Bachelor's Degree in Business Management at Auburn.

Congratulations messages continued to pour for the 19-year-old Okutoyi.

Tennis Kenya Secretary General Wanjiru Mbugua could not hide her joy.

“This is such an exciting moment for Tennis Kenya. We sacrifice to host these tournaments to give them opportunities and when the players rise to deliver like this, we couldn't ask for more and we shall continue to work hard to create bigger and better opportunities like higher ranking tournaments for our players,” said Wanjiru, the Team Kenya CEO for Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

“Africa, we are excited that players from the continent took advantage of having the tournaments and showed up. We believe that the more countries that emulate Tennis Kenya and host these events, that players in Africa will be able to benefit.”