Angella Okutoyi’s US Open Doubles journey comes to a crushing halt

Just two days after seeing her 2022 US Open Girls’ Singles campaign brought to an end in the second round, Kenya’s 18-year-old tennis history maker Angella Okutoyi once again suffered elimination on Thursday night as she succumbed to another round two defeat but this time in the Doubles category.

Playing alongside her Dutch partner Rose Marie Nijkamp, the duo went down to a straight set 7-6, 6-3 defeat against USA pair Natalie Block and Piper Chiney.

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Okutoyi/Nijkamp, who had formed a winning partnership in clinching the 2022 Wimbledon Girls’ Doubles title, were hoping to replicate the same fete at the US Open hard courts.

However, Block and Chiney’s partnership just proved too huge of a mountain for the two Wimbledon champions to surmount.

In the defeat, Okutoyi and her partner failed to take advantage in a first set that they led 0-4 after breaking their opponent’s service game twice in the first three games as Block and Chiney galvanized themselves after the poor start to get back their two breaks which restored parity.

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There was yet another chance for them to see out the first set as they broke again in the eleventh game for a 5-6 lead but they could not serve out the set as the USA pair fought back to force the game into a tie breaker that they won 7-5.

The second set was by far less of a contest as the USA broke twice to win 6-3 and seal the game in straight sets as they dumped out Okutoyi and Nijkamp.