The 2018 Kenya Open champion Angela Okutoyi will spearhead Kenya's charge at the International Tennis Federation (ITF) World Junior Championship slated for next week at the Nairobi Club.
Okutoyi, who is due to join the ITF Training Centre in Morocco in March, will have sibling Rosehilda Asumwa, Alicia Owegi, Cynthia Cheruto and Shakira Varese for company in the girls' category.
In the boys' category, Derrick Ominde, Jayson Mbogoro, Kael Shah, Raymond Riziki, Brandon Sagala, Reesh Haria and Sahib Chana will be hoping to end a poor run of form in the competition and earn ranking points in the three-week tournament.
Okutoyi, winner of six titles in 2018, says she is delighted the tournament is going ahead after action less 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
“I'm happy the event is going ahead. We are playing some of the top talents in the world and it gives us an opportunity to test ourselves against the world best junior players,” added Okutoyi.
Okutoyi played in a doubles tournament in November and has since been training after the Ministry of Sports gave them the go-ahead to resume.
“The warm up tournaments we played in November and early December were good. They have prepared us adequately for this coming event,” she added.
Ominde, who will be leading the boys' charge, noted that the boys are ready to step up and do the country proud in the three-week tournament.
"This gives us an opportunity to do well. We are playing at home and we are used to the surface," he said.
Tennis Kenya (TK) administrator, Nancy Nduku said already players from Yemen, Italy, and France have started arriving for the championship and more are expected in the next few days.
Nduku hopes the current weather conditions will not disrupt the tournament. “We hope the rain can stay away for the duration but if it doesn't, we have contingency measures in place."
Countries expected include Slovakia, Pakistan, Zimbabwe, Finland, Austria, Tunisia, South Korea, Switzerland, Japan and Germany among others.
