Tennis sensation Angella Okutoyi Saturday became the first Kenyan to be crowned champion at a Major Open.
Okutoyi and her partner Rose Marie Nijkamp from the Netherlands beat Canadians Kayla Cross and Victoria Mboko 3-6, 6-4, 11-9 in the final of Wimbledon Open doubles Junior Championships at the grass courts of All England Lawn Tennis Club.
Okutoyi and Nijkamp, who stunned third-seeds Lucija Ciric Bagaric (Croatia)/Nikola Daubnerova (Slovakia) 6-3, 6-4 on Friday, started the final on wrong-footing as they lost the first set 6-3 against the Canadians. However, they recovered in the second set, winning it 6-4 and never looked back.
They wrapped up the famous win with an 11-9 victory in the tiebreaker against the fourth-seeded Canadians who had upset the top-seeds Nikola Bartunkova (Czech)/Celine Naef (Switzerland) 6-4, 6-4 in semi-finals on Friday. The final showdown lasted one hour and 14 minutes.
From 2-1 down, Okutoyi/Nijkamp bagged the first set 6-3 in 27 minutes. Their opponents looked headed to turn tables in the second set after leading 2-0, but the Kenyan-Dutch pair leveled at 4-4 before wrapping up the famous victory 6-4 in 45 minutes.
Heading into the semi-finals, Okutoyi-Nijkamp pair were the underdogs, given by sports data company SofaScore a 22.37 percent winning chance against 77.63 for the third-seeds.
The Doubles final was Okutoyi’s second in eight tournaments since J2 Sousse in Tunisia in November 2021.
On the way to the final in Wimbledon, Okutoyi/Nijkamp swept aside Georgia Pedone (Italy)/Kaitlin Quevedo (USA) 6-4, 6-4, Denislava Glushkova (Bulgaria)/Hayu Kinoshita (Japan) 6-2, 6-3, Czech nationals Linda Klimovicova and Dominika Salkova 6-7, 6-4, 11-9 in the first three rounds.
Third-seeded Lucija Ciric Bagaric (Croatia)/Nikola Daubnerova (Slovakia) went past Belgians Amelie Van Impe and Amelie Waligora 1-6, 7-5, 10-3, Yu-Yun Li (Taipei)/Sara Saito (Japan) and Sayaka Ishii (Japan)/Lanlana Tararudee (Thailand) 6-2, 7-6.
Apart from Okutoyi, other Kenyans who have competed at Wimbledon are Christian Vitulli and Paul Wekesa. Vitulli reached Boys Doubles quarter-finals in 2006, while Wekesa was eliminated in Men’s Singles first round in 1996.
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