Okutoyi fired up for singles final after doubles victory in W35 tourney
Kenya's Angella Okutoyi plays a forehand to Zuzanna Pawlikowska of Poland during their W35 International Tennis Federation (ITF) W35 Nairobi women's singles semi final match at Nairobi Club on on January 11, 2025.
What you need to know:
- Okutoyi improved her ranking points from 44 to 52 by reaching the W35 Nairobi One quarter-final in singles.
- Making the singles semi-finals comes with 14 points, the finalist will get 23 points, while the champion earns 35 points.
Kenya’s highest-ranked tennis player, Angella Okutoyi is closing in on her first singles title in the International Tennis Tournament (ITF) Women’s World Tennis Tour in over a year after reaching the W35 Nairobi Two final at Nairobi Club on Saturday.
Okutoyi bagged the doubles title with Burundian partner Sada Nahimana after beating Dutch-Vietnamese sisters Demi Tran and Lian Tran 6-3, 6-2.
She will renew her rivalry with second seed Joanna Garland from Chinese Taipei in the singles final on Sunday at noon. The winner will get 35 WTA points, while the finalist gets 23 points.
Cheered on by the partisan home fans and playing on her favourite clay surface at the Nairobi Club, where she has been a Junior Elected Member since 2022 until she turns 25, Okutoyi (world 729 ranked) defeated Pawlikowska (591) 7-6, 3-6, 6-3.
The deserved win in the semi-final set up a mouth-watering final against Garland who overpowered Okutoyi 2-1 in the W35 Nairobi One quarter-final and went all the way to lift the title.
Garland reached back-to-back singles finals in Nairobi with a come-from-behind 6-7, 6-4, 6-1 win against Belgian Vicky Van de Peer in the first semi-final which took three hours and 10 minutes.
Enroute to her first singles final since winning W25 Nairobi in December 2023, Okutoyi outclassed Katerina Tsygourova (Switzerland) 7-6, 6-3 in the first round, sixth-seed Yufei Ren (China) 6-2, 4-4 (retired) in the second round, Monika Stankiewicz (Poland) 4-6, 6-2, 6-1 in the quarter-final and Pawlikowska in a semi-final that lasted two hours and 55 minutes.
Pawlikowska got to the semi-final after seeing off wildcard Shana Mao (Tanzania) 6-1, 6-2, fifth-seed Lian Tran (Netherlands) 6-4, 7-5, and third-seed Sada Nahimana (Burundi) 7-6, 6-1.
The 19-year-old Pawlikowska was inconsolable to give an interview after the match.
“The match was tough. She is a good player. I met her last week when we also went up to three sets. I knew coming into this match it was not going to be easy. I trusted in myself and I was also fueled by anger. When I’m angry positively, I play good tennis,” said Okutoyi.
She added that it felt special reaching the singles final and she coult not wait for the rematch against Garland.
Okutoyi improved her ranking points from 44 to 52 by reaching the W35 Nairobi One quarter-final in singles.
Making the singles semi-finals comes with 14 points, the finalist will get 23 points, while the champion earns 35 points.
The 2022 Junior Championships, Wimbledon doubles winner Okutoyi is expected to enter the top 600 in the next release of WTA rankings. Her career-best in singles was 491 ranked in July 29, last year.
Okutoyi opened the year ranked 581 in doubles. She has a career-high of 394 (December 9, 2024).
Okutoyi collected 14 points by reaching the doubles semi-final with Japanese partner Nagomi Higashitani in the W35 Nairobi One tournament and added 35 for winning the W35 Nairobi Two doubles with Nahimana.
A W35 tournament is part of the International Tennis Tournament (ITF) Women’s World Tennis Tour, the third-tier tour for women’s professional tennis. Third-tier tournaments are W100 (highest), W75, W50, W35, and W15 (lowest).
The W35 tournament has a prize money of $30,000 (Sh3.8 million).
