Africa Junior tennis champion Angela Okutoyi believes there is room for improvement after advancing to the third round of the Junior Australian Open in Melbourne Tuesday.
Speaking on Tuesday, her coach Thuku Rogoi said the 2018 Kenya Open champion was delighted with the victory and can only get better in the week-long tournament Down Under.
“She is calm, focused and confident too. When you play at that level, you can beat anyone and I believe there are areas of her game which she can improve on, especially backhand returns,” said Rogoi.
"Naturally you want to get excited and think ahead but our feet are firmly on the ground and we want to take it point by point.”
Okutoyi kept her composure to beat Australian Zara Larke 7-6 5-7 6-1 in the second round of the event.
"It was a tough match. The opening two sets were close and the second one, in particular, went to a tie-break. Angela showed her class and capitalised on her opponent's mistakes to win,” added Rogoi.
She becomes the first Kenyan to go past the second round at a Grand Slam tournament.
Okutoyi will now face Lola Radivojevic of Serbia in the third round.
Okutoyi defeated Italian Federica Urgesi 6-4, 6-7 (5) 6-3 on Sunday in the first round to become the first girl from Kenya to win a Grand Slam juniors match.
