Angella Okutoyi begins quest for Olympic slot in Bethany Beach
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Reading Time: 2min | Thu. 16.05.24. | 10:13
She hopes to go past the quarters in her last two events to stand a better chance of making the Olympics cut
African Games champion Angella Okutoyi will on Thursday evening begin her quest to edge closer to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games when she plays her first match at the W35 Bethany Beach Women’s Singles tournament in Delaware.
The 20-year-old, in a race to gain up to 65 points required to make the cut for the Summer Games, will face American 22-year-old Csilla Fodor in a Round of 32 matchup at Court 23 at 17330 EAT.
Okutoyi, who recently, as of Monday, May 13, rose 23 places from 544th to 521st in the live Women Tennis Association standings, needs to be among the top 400 players in the world by June 10 to make it to her debut Olympic Games.
The tournament in Delaware offers her the first real opportunity to achieve that, and she will be hoping to make a deep run to remain on track to finish in between the projected 380-400 positions.
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Her past tournaments have not ended in spectacularly good fashion, as she suffered a quarter-final loss in her last event in Boca Raton, Florida, followed by a qualifying round loss in Charlottesville late last month.
“Mentally, I have to get the grit to ensure I go past the quarters and look at playing in the finals of the upcoming tournaments to boost my chances of playing in the Olympics,” Okutoyi said last week of her targets in one of her remaining two shots.
The 2023 Kenya Open champion is expected to close her chase when she takes part in the W15 tournament in San Diego from May 27 to June 2.
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