Okutoyi advances to second round in Monastir

Kenyan Angella Okutoyi Wednesday stunned German Helena Buchwald 7-5, 6-2 in the first round of the final International Tennis Federation World Women's Tour W15 tourney in Monastir, Tunisia

"The match wasn’t the best at the beginning, my balls weren’t going at all. They were too shallow, but when the match kept going l adjusted myself and how l was playing. I took one point at a time," said Okutoyi.

The 19-year-old, who was bundled out of the doubles event under floodlights on Tuesday night, leveled at 3-3 in the first set, but lost her grip as Buchwald,18, raced to a 5-3 lead.

However, Okutoyi slowly clawed her way back into the set, taking a 6-5 lead after equalizing at 5-5 and never looked back.

Okutoyi was ruthless in the second set, winning a lot of her points from both her powerful serves and good returns and also benefited from four double faults from the German.

In the latest WTA Singles rankings released on July 24, Buchwald occupies position 974, while Okutoyi is at 1,212. Buchwald's career-high is 972 (July 3,2023), while Okutoyi is 1,122 ((February 6, 2023).

Okutoyi will meet the winner of the tie between top-seed Yasmine Mansouri (France) and qualifier Karina Jumazhanova (Kazakhstan) in the second round.
Okutoyi partnered with Ranim Rassil from Tunisia in doubles and they knocked out in the first round by Maddalena Glordano (Italy)/Joanna Zawadzka (Poland) 7-6,3-6,10-7 on Tuesday night.

The 2018 Kenyan Open champion will head back home after the competition.

She won doubles in her first tournament and reached the quarter-finals in singles in her second tournament.

The 2022 Rwanda Open champion is preparing to go back to Auburn University in the USA for her second semester.

She joined the university in January this year to pursue tennis and a degree in business management.