On-form Angela Okutoyi has set her sight on winning the third leg of the ITF World Tennis Tour starting today at the Nairobi Club.
Okutoyi has been in brilliant form so far. She won the opening leg, where she beat Ireland’s Celine Simunyu 6-3, 6-2.
She then continued with her impressive form to beat Rudyard Luca of Hungary 6-1, 6-4. The feat saw her win the second leg to complete a hat-trick of titles.
Okutoyi added another feather to her cap by teaming up with Meshkatolzahara Safi of Iran to win the doubles category after beating Olga Mishenina of Russia and Great Britain’s Maria Ustic 6-1 6-3.
Okutoyi, who is slated to join the ITF Training Centre in Morocco in March, now believes she has the momentum to go all the way and win the third leg.
“I’m happy with my form. I am getting better with each passing day as I look forward to the final event this weekin Nairobi,” added Okutoyi.
Following the win, Okutoyi is expected to move into the top 100 of the junior category once the new rankings are released this week.
“One of my targets this year was to move up the rankings and I hope to go even higher as I enter more international tournaments,” she added.
Okutoyi is currently ranked 151 in the world and will be will be hoping to get invites to the big tennis tournaments like the junior category of the French Open, Wimbledon and US Open later this year.
“I will be delighted to get an invite from the tennis organisers in those events,” she added.
Okutoyi, who is Africa’s top female junior player, said she started training in November after the government granted Tennis Kenya the green-light to resume the sport. Tennis like other disciplines had been inactive for nine months due to Covid-19
In the boys’ category, Derrick Ominde and Kalin Shah will be seeking to improve their fortunes in the event by qualifying for the finals.
