This archive report was first published on 8 August 2019.
On Thursday, August 8, 2019, Kenya's top tennis players, Angela Okutoyi, Judith Nkatha, and Faith Nyabera, faced off against international opponents in the International Tennis Federation (ITF) Women's World Tennis Tour at Peponi School in Kiambu County.
Unfortunately, the Kenyan trio lost their pre-quarter-final matches, with Nyabera's hopes of reaching the women's singles quarter-finals going up in smoke after a 6-2, 6-2 loss to Serbia's Nevena Sokovic.
According to Sokovic, she 'tried playing my first set slower to gauge her speed, then I moved in for the kill. I'm happy that I took shorter time to win the match.'
Nyabera, however, was disappointed by the turn of events, attributing her loss to not moving as fast as expected, which gave Sokovic an advantage.
Okutoyi and Nkatha also faced tough opponents, with Okutoyi losing 6-2, 2-6, 7-6 (3) to Burundian Sada Nahimana, and Nkatha falling 6-0, 6-0 to Lexie Stevens of the Netherlands.
Despite their losses, the Kenyan players have earned valuable ranking points from the ITF tour and will look to bounce back in the second leg of the tournament next week.
