Roslidah Osumwa and Alicia Owegi are expected to battle for the sole slot for All Africa Games as the second leg of the ITF World Tennis Tour gets underway this morni at Peponi School.
The other three slots have been filled by Kenya Open champion Angela Okutoyi, Judy Nkatha and Faith Nyabera based on national rankings. Both Owegi and Osumwa sailed through to the first round of the event yesterday with straight wins in the qualifying round of matches yesterday.
Head coach Peter Wachira said he thought it would be fair to have Owegi and Asumwa play in the tournament to aid his selection of the final spot.
“I will be looking at their performance to see who is best suited to make it in the team. I will not base this on results as they are deceiving at times when it comes to selection and that’s why I want to look on how they will play,” the coach said.
The two were bundled out in the qualifying round of the first leg last week and by having gone a step higher in the second leg of the event, Wachira felt there is need to see how they will play in the next matches before he comes up with the final player.
In the qualifiers played yesterday Owegi beat Vibhasree Gowda from India 6-1, 6-0 to book a first round duel with French Sariaka Radilofe while Asumwa beat compatriot Mary Wachira 6-1, 6-2. She will be up against Maria Mihal from Romania. The draw also assured Kenya of a second round qualification after Judy Nkatha and Faith Nyabera were drawn together.
“Today they all put on a good show and displayed remarkable improvement in a number of areas. So I will wait and see how they will be playing against a very different crop of players,” coach added.
In the first leg, Owegi lost 6-2, 6-1 to Julia Konishi of Brazil while Asumwa was bundled out by India’s Manju Prasad 6-0, 6-0. However the coach asked them to stick to their natural game and avoid tension. Another Kenyan who sailed through to the first round was Cynthia Wanjala after beating compatriot Shania Kaur 6-4, 6-2.
