Kenyan tennis star Okutoyi joins Top 100 club

Kenya's Angella Okutoyi has broken into the top-100 players in the latest International Tennis Federation (ITF) Junior Rankings released on Monday evening.

The newly-crowned Africa Junior champion now occupies position 93, her new career-high.

Her previous career-high of 127 was achieved on February 1 this year after dominating two J4 Nairobi tournaments in January at the Nairobi Club.

Okutoyi’s latest rise comes after she bagged the Africa Junior Championship (JB2) title in Sousse, Tunisia on November 26.

Ranked 142nd and seeded second at the beginning of the Africa Under-18 tournament on November 22, Okutoyi went all the way to final, where she stunned top seed Aya El Aouni (126) from Morocco 6-3,6-3.

She had 499.25 points during the November 22 rankings, but has now improved to 663.25.

On her way to the final of the grade two tournament after earning a first round bye, Okutoyi defeated Meriem Ben Ezzedine (1,277) from Tunisia 6-2, 6-1 in the second round, Spain-based Ekua Youri (807) from Botswana 1-6, 6-4, 6-3 in the quarter-final and Malak El Allami (482) from Morocco 6-3, 6-2 in the semi-final.

The 17-year-old Okutoyi started 2021 ranked 186. She rose 59 places to 127th in the world after dominating the J4 Nairobi I and J4 Nairobi II events at the Nairobi Club.

Since that time, the right-handed player has competed in 13 ITF Junior tournaments in Tunisia, Egypt and South Africa. She has won 18 matches on clay courts and 11 on the hard courts and lost 10.

Okutoyi, who had at one time dropped to 198th for lack of tournaments when travel was restricted due to coronavirus, is currently in Tunisia preparing for three Women’s 15 Monastir (Futures) in Tunisia scheduled for December, where competitors will fight for prize money of Sh1.5 million (USD15,000) in each of the tournaments.