S. OchiengTennis ace Angella Okutoyi jets in ahead of Billie Jean King Cup
Reading Time: 3min | Mon. 22.05.23. | 20:57
Winners of the 12 team competition will be promoted to Group II while the bottom team will be relegated.
Kenya’s tennis sensation Angella Okutoyi has already jetted back into the country from the USA ahead of the 2023 Billie Jean King Africa Group III tournament that will be taking place at the Nairobi Club from 12-17 June.
Since receiving a full-time scholarship from Auburn University in USA at the start of the year, Okutoyi, who back in July 2022 made history by becoming the first ever Kenyan to lift a Grand Slam title when she hoisted the 2022 Wimbledon Girls Doubles trophy alongside Netherland’s Rose Marie Nijkamp, will be hoping to inspire the Kenyan quartet to clinching promotion to Group II.
DOUBLES CHAMPIONS @Wimbledon
— Angella Okutoyi (@Okutoyiangella2) July 11, 2022
I have no words to be honest but just to give my gratitude to my partner of course,@ITFTennis , #GSPDP , my coaches, and my coach back home @wanjiii, @MEsipisu , @tennis_kenya , @OlympicsKe , family and truly to all of you back home🙏 pic.twitter.com/uXjJMCnZvb
Alongside Okutoyi to compete in the championship will be her twin sister Roselida Asumwa who also benefited from a scholarship from Cowley College in Kansas as well as Alicia Owegi and local star Cynthia Wanjala.
While Asumwa is expected to land in the country in the coming week, Owegi arrived from Alabama university a little earlier and already started her preparations for the tourney alongside Wanjala.
The four players are the same ones selected for the 2022 Billie Jean King Cup Europe/Africa in Skopje, North Macedonia where Asumwa, Wanjala and Owegi finished eleventh out of 14 countries after losing 2-0 to Botswana in the positional play off.
The countdown begins! 📷 We're just 20 days away from the highly anticipated Billie Jean King Cup in Nairobi. Get ready to witness top-level tennis, fierce competition, and unforgettable moments. #BillieJeanKingCup pic.twitter.com/5TgWFcVILv
— Tennis Kenya (@tennis_kenya) May 22, 2023
Okutoyi missed out as the dates of the competition clashed with her historic run to the Wimbledon Junior Championships in London.
Kenya made their Billie Jean King Cup debut in 1991 and played on and off until 2005. They returned to the competition in 2012.
To date, Kenya have recorded three wins in the tournament – against Cyprus in 1995 and 2005 and against Iceland in 2017.
The tournament this year will feature twelve nations including Botswana, Burundi, Ghana, Kenya, Mauritius, Morocco, Namibia, Nigeria, Seychelles, Tunisia, Uganda, and Zimbabwe.
The Billie Jean King Cup, referred to as the World Cup of Tennis, is the premier international team competition in women's tennis, launched as the Federation Cup in 1963 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the International Tennis Federation (ITF).
The name was changed to the Fed Cup in 1995 and changed again in September 2020 in honor of former World No. 1 Billie Jean King.
It is the world's largest annual women's international team sports competition in terms of the number of nations that compete.
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