NAIROBI, Kenya, Jul 10 – President Uhuru Kenyatta has congratulated teenage tennis sensation Angela Okutoyi for being the first Kenyan to win a Grand Slam.
In a statement, President Kenyatta hailed Okutoyi’s historic victory as “a momentous achievement that has not only lifted Kenya’s profile in world tennis but that will also inspire a generation of young players to excel in the sport.”
Okutoyi,18, and her Dutch compatriot Rose Marie Nijkamp beat Canadian pair Kayla Cross and Victoria Mboko by 2 sets to 1 to clinch the girls’ doubles victory at #Wimbledon on Saturday.
The duo started the match on a low with the Canadian girls taking the first set 6-3 in 27 minutes.
Okutoyi and Nijkamp however fought back and in 32 minutes forced a tie breaker with a 6-4 victory in the second set.
They were not easily pushed off the lead and won the tie breaker 11-9 to not only win the match and the title, but also walk majestically on the road of history.
Okutoyi and Nijkamp had beaten the pair of Nikola Daubnerova (Serbia) and Lucija Ciric Bagaric (Croatia) by straight sets of 6-3-6-4 in Friday evening’s semi-final.
On the way to the final, Okutoyi and Nijkamp swept aside Georgia Pedone (Italy) and Kaitlin Quevedo (USA) 6-4, 6-4, then proceeded to beat Denislava Glushkova (Bulgaria) and Hayu Kinoshita (Japan) 6-2, 6-3.
A ticket to the quarter finals saw them beat the Czech Republic pair of Linda Klimovicova and Dominika Salkova 6-7, 6-4, 11-9.
