Okutoyi draws India's Shetty in W15 first round

Wimbledon junior doubles champion Angella Okutoyi will start her W15 Nairobi Women's World Tennis Tour campaign against Indian qualifier Sharanya Shetty in the first round of the main draw on the clay courts of Karen Country Club on Tuesday.

Victory over Shetty will see Okutoyi meet the winner between eighth-seeded Sevil Yuldasheva from Uzbekistan and Tanzanian qualifier Ester Nankulange in the second round.

Kenya has four players in the main draw. Wildcard Roseline Asumwa, who is Okutoyi’s twin sister, will face Australian Nessa Pratt – the first foreign player to arrive in the country on Wednesday last week.

The winner of this match will book a second round date against sixth-seeded Sharmada Balu from India or Kenyan Katarina Karanja.

Stacy Yego benefited from a Venezuelan player’s withdrawal to be in the main draw as a lucky loser. Yego had been bundled out in the second round of the qualifying draw by Indian Mahrukh Kokni after losing 6-2, 6-2.

Compatriots Mary Wachira, Claire Muthoni and Cynthia Wanjala were not lucky as they failed to progress from the qualifying draw.

Wachira suffered 6-0, 6-2 loss at the hands of Shetty as Muthoni was overpowered by German Akua Akoma Hansen 6-0, 6-0, while Israeli Adi Bitton was awarded a walkover against Wanjala who fell ill.

Yego will now face Linda Salvi for a place in the round of 16 of the main competition where she will take on either Smirti Bhasin (India) or Alexandra Iordache (Romania).

German Emily Sebold is seeded top. She will serve off her campaign against Bitton, with the winner coming up against Magdalena Stoilkoska (North Macedonia) or Lakshmi Gowda (India).

American seed four Sabastiani Leon is drawn against Pooja Kudesia from India. Whoever wins this match will play Nigerian Sarah Adegoke or Natalia Kowalczyk from Poland in the next round.

Other first round matches are: Dominique Ernst (Switzerland) v Divine Nweke (Nigeria), Prisha Vyas (USA) v third seed Emma Tothova (Serbia), Sravya Shivani Chilakalapudi (India) v Celine Simunyu (Ireland), Anushka Ashar (India) v wild card Laalitya Kalluri (India), Kokni v Hansen, and Alissia Chiara Gleixner (German) v second seed Caroline Romeo (France).

The tournament has a prize money of $15,000 (Sh1.8 million).

Okutoyi, who is set to join Auburn University in the USA in January on a full scholarship, told Nation Sport in an earlier interview that her aim was to win the two W15 Nairobi tournaments scheduled for November 13 to 28.

“I’m ready for the challenge. My expectations are to do well. I’m going to try my best and win these two tournaments. I really want to collect a lot of points from them. I know they will help me to improve my ranking next year,” said Okutoyi.