Kenya’s Owegi suffers R1 exit as Burundi ace Nahimana shines in inaugural W25 tourney
11th December 2023
Talented Angella Okutoyi will get her tournament underway on Tuesday.
- The W25 tennis event is being played in Nairobi for the very first time.
- A prize money of $25,000 is up for grabs in the competition.
- Kenya has only Angella Okutoyi and Stacy Yego remaining in the competition after Owegi's exit.
Kenya’s Alicia Owegi failed in her quest of advancing deep
into the inaugural W25 International Tennis Federation (ITF) tournament being
played in Nairobi’s Karen Country Club after succumbing to a round one exit in
the competition.
Having made the main draw courtesy of being handed a wild
card, Owegi saw her journey on home soil ended early on after a straight-set
defeat against Slovakia’s Viktoria Morvayova.
Morvayova, who has a WTA ranking of 515, proved too good for her opponent as she recorded a 2-6, 2-6 victory to progress to the second round.
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Elsewhere, Burundian ace Sada Nahimana, who became the first
player from her country to compete in the main draw of a tour-level match back
in May this year, managed to get the job done in her encounter after battling
past France’s Lucie Nguyie Tan with a hard fought 4-6, 4-6 win.
Nahimana, who is the second seed in the event, overcame a difficult start that saw her lose the opening three games, before managing to turn around the tide in an energetic performance mixed with delightful shot variety to set up a clash against Morvayova in the second round.
“I enjoyed playing the match because there were a lot of
people supporting me so I feel happy with the win. I did not start so great,
but I stayed very focused because she was playing very well but my attitude was
really good all through,” Nahimana told SportPesa News after the game.
“In this tournament, I just want to take every match as an opportunity for me to improve my game and to enjoy,” she added.
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In other results, Gaia Squarcialupi from Italy eased to the
second round after edging Tanzania’s Shana Martin Mao 6-3, 6-0.
Puerto Rico’s Ametmarie Perez also booked her place in the
next round after a battling 7-6, 6-7 (10-8) victory over Emma Van Poppel from
the Netherlands.
Canada’s Love-Star Alexis also beat Amanda Carolina Nava
Elkin from Mexico 6-4, 6-1 to make the next round.
Kenya’s ace tennis Angella Okutoyi will get her tournament underway on Tuesday alongside Stacy Yego who got into the tournament after wriggling her way through the qualifiers.
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