Silver for Okutoyi, Higashitani in Women’s World Tour
Angella Okutoyi of Kenya and Nagomi Higashitani of Japan pose with their titles after winning silver in the doubles final during the ITF Women’s World Tennis Tour (W25) at the Karen Country Club, Nairobi on December 17, 2023.
What you need to know:
- Kenyans Alicia Owegi, Roselida Asumwa, Britney Chebet, Faith Urasa, Farah Fernandez, Cynthia Wanjala and Hadassah Msine are the qualifying draw which started Sunday.
- Okutoyi is the first Kenyan player – man or woman – to win a professional singles event (W15 Monastir in July 2023) since Paul Wekesa achieved the feat at Andorra Challenger in 1994.
Kenyan star Angella Okutoyi and partner Nagomi Higashitani lost 6-4, 7-5 in an exciting doubles final against top seeds Fanny Ostlund (Sweden) and Valeriya Strakhova (Ukraine) in the ITF Women’s World Tennis Tour (W25) at the Karen Country Club, Nairobi on Sunday.
Okutoyi - the Kenya Open 2018 and 2022 champion - and Japanese partner Higashitani were let down by a couple of errors in reception and also over hitting the ball.
They had qualified for the final on Friday by upsetting third seeds Jessie Aney (USA) and Lena Papadakis (Germany) 7-6, 6-4 in the first semi-final on the clay courts of Karen Country Club.
The pair swept aside Stefanie Auer (Austria)/Sophie Luescher (Switzerland) 6-4, 6-2 and second seeds Maria Fernanda Herazo Gonzalez (Colombia) and Ksenia Laskutova 7-6, 7-5 in the first two rounds.
Ostlund and Strakhova qualified for the final with a come-from-behind 4-6, 7-6, 10-8 win against fourth-seeded Martina Colmegna (Italy) and Sada Nahimana (Burundi).
Still it was a great step forward for Karen Country Club member Okutoyi as it was her first ever final in a W25 tournament after reaching the second round in singles at the W25 Florence in the USA recently.
The 2022 Wimbledon Junior doubles champion Okutoyi now shifts focus to the second tournament slated for Monday till December 24.
Okutoyi exited the singles in the second round of the first tournament after losing to 34-year-old Chinese Jia-Jing Lu 6-4, 6-4 on Wednesday.
Kenyans Alicia Owegi, Roselida Asumwa, Britney Chebet, Faith Urasa, Farah Fernandez, Cynthia Wanjala and Hadassah Msine are the qualifying draw which started Sunday.
Okutoyi is the first Kenyan player – man or woman – to win a professional singles event (W15 Monastir in July 2023) since Paul Wekesa achieved the feat at Andorra Challenger in 1994.
