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Okutoyi faces Swiss player in second W35 Nairobi tourney

Kenya’s Angella Okutoyi serves against Chinese Taipei’s Garland Joanna during the W35 Nairobi tournament at Nairobi Club on January 3, 2025. 

Photo credit: Evans Habil | Nation

By  Geoffrey Anene

Reporter

NMG Sport

What you need to know:

  • Okutoyi, who is ranked 729 in the WTA singles rankings, starts the second W35 Nairobi tournament against Katerina Tsygourova (656) from Switzerland.
  • A win against Tsygourova will see Okutoyi face the winner between Chinese sixth-seed Yufei Ren (490) and Darja Suvirdjonkova (826) from Serbia in the second round.

The African Games women's singles gold medalist Angella Okutoyi has been handed a tough draw in the top half of the second W35 Nairobi tournament main draw which serves off on the Nairobi Club clay courts on Tuesday.

Okutoyi, who is ranked 729 in the WTA singles rankings, starts the second W35 Nairobi tournament against Katerina Tsygourova (656) from Switzerland.

A win against Tsygourova will see Okutoyi face the winner between Chinese sixth-seed Yufei Ren (490) and Darja Suvirdjonkova (826) from Serbia in the second round.

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If Okutoyi manages to win the first two rounds, then she will meet top-seed Valeriya Strakhova (290), that is if the Ukrainian also sweeps aside Magdalena Stoilkovska from Macedonia (1,196), and the winner of Demi Tran (643) from Netherlands vs Monika Stankiewicz of Poland (659).

Sada Nahimana from Burundi (339) is also in the top half of the draw. She is seeded third. Nahimana won doubles in the first W35 Nairobi tournament partnering with Rinon Okuwaki.

These two eliminated Okutoyi and her Japanese partner Nagomi Higashitani in the semi-finals. This time round, Okutoyi and Nahimana are teaming up in doubles. They won W25 (which was renamed W35) in Nairobi in December 2023, so they will be defending their title. Nahimana will begin her singles campaign against Italian qualifier Gloria Contrino.

Kenya’s other player in the singles main draw is Cynthia Wanjala Cheruto. She is in the bottom half of the draw, which has second-seed Joanna Garland (world no.319) from Chinese Taipei, who won the first W35 Nairobi tournament, fourth seed Ksenia Laskutova (Russia), seventh-seed Rinon Okuwaki (Japan) and eighth-seed Sina Herrmann (Germany).

Okutoyi collected eight points from the first event after reaching the quarter-final stage where she was eliminated by Garland. 

The W35 tournament is part of the International Tennis Tournament (ITF) Women’s World Tennis Tour, the third-tier tour for women’s professional tennis.

The Women's Tennis Association (WTA) Tour is the worldwide top-tier tennis tour. This tier offers total prize money of USD250,000 (WTA 250 tournaments), USD700,000 to USD900,000 (WTA 500 tournaments), USD1,000,000 to USD 9,000,000 (WTA 1000 tournaments).

The Grand Slam of tennis comprises four major tournaments (Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon, and US Open). These offer total prize money of between USD54.2 million to USD65 million.

The second tier has WTA 125 series events. Top in the third tier is the W100 tournament followed by W75, W50, and W35, while W15 is at the bottom. 

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