Okutoyi celebrates Hongera Champions Award with W15 victory

Angella Okutoyi is one match away from being crowned W15 Monastir champion in Tunisia.

She has stunned third-seeded Zeel Desai from India in the semi-final without dropping a set, 6-1, 7-6 on Saturday.

She went into the match buoyed by her award from the inaugural Hongera Champions Awards organised by the Ministry of Sports at the Safari Park hotel in Nairobi on Friday.

Okutoyi got Sh1 million and a memento during the awards where she was represented by her twin sister Roselida Asumwa, who is also a tennis player.

"This is amazing. I mean I am speechless. I just want to thank the CS for doing this. l have never gotten so much money. This will definitely help me in my tennis career and my grand ma, too. I am so, so grateful. Not sure how to express this now," Okutoyi told Nation Sport on phone from Tunisia on Friday.

The great news for Okutoy came a few hours after she cruised to W15 Monastir semifinals by stunning fifth-seeded Anastasia Abbagnato 2-1.

The 2022 Wimbledon Junior Doubles champion Okutoyi (1212 in WTA Singles Ranking) hammered Abbagnato (721) 6-2, 1-6, 6-1 in two hours and two minutes.

On her way to the semi-finals, Okutoyi, 19, saw off German Helena Buchwald (972 WTA Singles Ranking) 7-5, 6-2 and top-seed Yasmine Mansouri from France (514 WTA Singles Ranking) 6-4, 6-0 in the first and second rounds before added Abbagnato,19, on the list of her casualties.

The 2022 Rwanda Open champion Okutoyi was not the only tennis player to be celebrated at the Hongera Champions Awards as Kenya's legend Paul Wekesa, who is the first Kenyan to reach top-100 in ATP rankings. Wekesa got a memento and Sh50,000.

After her third W15 Monastir tournament, Okutoyi will come back home for the Kenya Open before heading to Auburn University in the USA for her second semester.

Asumwa and Alicia Owegi, who study at Cowley College and Alabama University, will also compete at Kenya Open before going to USA.