History-chasing Okutoyi storms W15 Monastir quarters

Angella Okutoyi has attributed hard work for her latest piece of history where she broke into the quarter-finals for the first time at the International Tennis Federation (ITF) Women's World Tennis Tour W15 Monastir in Tunisia on Thursday.

The 2022 Wimbledon Junior Doubles champion defeated Italian Virginia Ferrara 7-5, 6-3 in a match that lasted two hours and 10 minutes on the hard courts of Hotel Skanes Family Monastir Club.

Okutoyi, who won W15 Monastir doubles title with Frenchwoman Beverley Nyangom last week, will meet Italian qualifier Cristina Elana Tiglea on Friday for a place in the semi-final. Cristina beat Romanian qualifier Bianca Elena Barbulescu 6-2, 7-5.

“The match was intense, but I just kept going and trusting my shots,” Okutoyi told Nation Sport.

She says that she won the match just by taking each point, one at a time, as well as “trusting in my stuff and being aggressive on my shots."

Okutoyi says that she draws a lot of motivation from the second round win. “I have worked so hard and I am putting it to work. It’s paying off, so I’m happy,” she noted.

Before going past Ferrara, Okutoyi’s best performance in singles at W15 Monastir was the second round she registered in her first W15 Monastir tournament last week.

She was eliminated by Thailand’s Tanuchaporn Yongmod in December 2021, Frenchwoman Marie Villet in July 2022 and Indian Shrivalli Bhamidipaty in early August 2022 in the first round. She reached the second round in August 2022 where Poland’s Priska Nugroho stopped her.

On Thursday, the first set was tightly contested, with Okutoyi managing to wrap it up with a breakpoint win after leveling at 5-5. She had two aces in the first set.

The 2022 Rwanda Open champion Okutoyi trailed in the second set 0-1, but gave it as much as she got and then pulled away at 3-3 and managed another ace in the famous win.

Okutoyi, who earned a wild card to the main draw, started her campaign with a sweet revenge against junior Vlada Mincheva 1-6, 6-4, 6-3 on Tuesday.

The 2018 Kenya Open winner had surrendered 6-1, 6-7, 3-6 at the hands of Mincheva from Russia in the second round in the first W15 Monastir last week.

Okutoyi has a career-high WTA Singles Ranking of 1,122 (February 6, 2023).

Ferrara, who has a WTA Singles Ranking of 891, dismissed Romanian seventh-seeded Alexandra Iordache 6-1, 6-2 in the first round to set the date with Okutoyi.

Meanwhile, eighth-seed Raymond Oduor sailed into the semi-finals of J60 Nairobi tournament after seeing off seed number 13 Vishnu Balachandar from India 6-4, 6-2 at Nairobi Club on Thursday.

Oduor is the only Kenyan to make it that far after Alvin Kimathi, Saeed Ganzel, Munene Muondu, Ruincliffe Ominde, Mark Murage, Liberty Kibue, Jeff Okuku, Brian Odingo and Aaryan Khimasa were eliminated in the round of 64.