Okutoyi, Higashitani overcome language barrier to finish second in W25 tourney

Kenya’s Angella Okutoyi and Japan’s Nagomi Higashitani overcame language problems to finish as runners up in the Doubles category of the inaugural W25 International Tennis Federation (ITF) tournament played at the Karen Country Club.

In the final staged on Sunday afternoon, Okutoyi and Higashitani just missed to capitalize on the big points as they succumbed to a 4-6, 6(5)-7 defeat in the hands of Ukraine’s Valeriya Strakhova and Fanny Ostlund from Sweden who were the first seeds in the tourney.

However, the two players showed massive understanding with each other in reaching the championship decider from the first round owing to the difference in languages between the duo.

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Okutoyi could only speak in English with Higashitani fluent in Japanese but limited in her English speaking and understanding.

“The match did not go as planned but I am glad we fought till the end and tried to stay in the games. For me, I was not able to hold my serve the way Higashitani did because it really helped us a lot.

We needed to be the ones putting pressure because I feel all the pressure came our way,” Okutoyi remarked on the game.

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The 19-year-old youngster then detailed how they got going all the way to the final in what was their very first time playing together, pointing how a breakdown in communication popped up a couple of times but they managed to find a way through.

“She does not understand English that well and it takes time for her to process. It was a bit tricky but fun at the same time because there was less quarrelling on the court.

I really enjoyed and we kept motivating each other by saying the most important words like come on and let’s go so that is what helped us,” Okutoyi said.

“I tried to tell her what to do at some points but it did not go well because she was not really understanding and we were about to get time violation so I stopped. But she is old enough and knows what to do and it ended turning up great,” she added.

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Strakhova and Ostlund broke twice in the opening set to take a 2-5 lead but they were unable to serve out the set as Okutoyi and Higashitani got one break back to reduce the deficit to 4-5 but failed to force the game all the way to a tiebreaker as they lost 4-6.

The second set produced some epic encounter with the Okutoyi and Higashitani partnership showing grit after being broken twice to force the game to a tiebreaker when their opponents were serving for the match.

However, their luck was not to be as they ended up coming just short after losing 5-7 in the tiebreaker.

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