The dream of reaching the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam tournament (and then who knows...) of the young Kenyan tennis player Angella Okutoyi was broken yesterday in the third round against the equally promising Serbian opponent Lola Radivojevic.
However, the African Under 18 champion leaves the Australian competition as the first Kenyan woman to reach the third round in singles of any Grand Slam event, a record that probably only she will be able to beat next year, before coming of age and trying to make the big leap into professionalism.
We were interested in the Kenyan sportswoman because her first round win at the Australian Open Junior Championship was already historic. No Kenyan tennis player had ever done better than her and this first victory was against an Italian player, Federica Urgesi from Marche region. A path that became even more interesting and hopeful after Angella eliminated in the second round the home competitor, the Australian Zara Larke, in three sets, in a match that lasted more than two hours.
Just the fatigue accumulated in two very tight matches, has played against the girl of Nairobi who had to play Wednesday morning against a rested Radivojevic, who defeated her easily in two sets only, with the score of 6-2, 6-3.
What remains for her is the great joy of a feat, confirmed and doubled, that confirmed her entry into the top 16 junior players at a Grand Slam tournament and launches Angella into the Olympus of international junior tennis and will surely allow her to participate in other important tournaments and increase her experience. The entire Kenyan tennis movement will benefit from this small record and from the example set by Okutoyi.