There is the dream, the reality and the path that separates them. The one that Angella Okutoyi will take in the coming weeks stretches more than 7,000 kilometers, from Bethany Beach, in Delaware, to Tunisia. The 20-year-old Kenyan will try to glean, on the secondary circuit, the points she lacks to write history, by becoming, this summer in Paris, the first from her country to participate in an Olympic tennis tournament.
Her surprise victory at the African Games in March, in Accra (Ghana), including a heroic success in the semi-finals against the Egyptian Mayar Sherif, title holder and then 70th in the world (5-7, 7-5, 7-6 , after more than four hours of match), allowed him to pre-empt one of the places reserved by the International Federation for continental champions.
But she must fulfill a second condition to validate her place: be in the top 400 on June 10, the date on which the list of participants will be ratified. A second criterion that Okutoyi, 544th in the WTA rankings, only discovered in February. “If I had known it before, maybe I would have played more tournaments during the summer or fall,” she admits.
Orphaned at birth and raised by her grandmother with her twin
A sophomore at Auburn, Alabama, she was involved in the college season in recent months and did not make a single appearance on the professional circuit between January and the end of April. Hence the situation she finds herself in today. “It’s a lot of pressure, obviously, but I just want to enjoy every moment on the court,” says Okutoyi with that smile on her lips that rarely left her during the half hour spent with her on video.
Defying fate is second nature to her. His mother died giving birth to him and his twin, Roselida Asumwa, also a tennis player, in a minor college in the United States. Their grandmother, a widow, then took them from the orphanage to raise them despite starving means, with three other children in her care.
“It was very hard,” says Okutoyi, who played her first racket on the courts of the convent where her grandmother worked as a cleaning lady. People have the image of tennis as a sport for the rich, and that is a reality. I just wanted to play the sport that I love and I’m happy that my family gave me the opportunity, that they didn’t choose for me. Otherwise it would have been running, that’s for sure. (Smile.) “
A former top 50 junior, Okutoyi has proudly embraced the role of pioneer in her country. First girl in the third round of a junior Grand Slam in singles (Australian Open 2022), first to win a title in a Major in doubles in the category (Wimbledon 2022, teamed with the Dutch Rose Marie Nijkamp), first woman to win a professional tournament (in Monastir, Tunisia, in July 2023) and the first since Paul Wekesa, titled in Challenger in Andorra in 1994: she breaks down the barriers one by one.
“Once I’m sure I’m going to the Games, it’s going to be crazy”
Angella Okutoyi, on the craze in Kenya
He is about 65 points short, according to the estimates of Valeriya Zeleva, coach at Auburn, to break a new one. Not easy with just one month to go before the deadline. “She believes in herself, I have no doubt that she can do it,” underlines the 25-year-old Russian technician.
This will go through a W35 (like the number of points awarded to the winner) at Bethany Beach this week, before a departure for Tunisia, where she was crowned African U18 champion in 2021 – “there is a good vibe over there ! » -, for “two or three tournaments”, depending on the progress of his harvest. A program dictated by sporting imperatives, but also administrative, since she needs visas to enter most of the countries which organize tournaments.
Financially helped by Auburn, the Kenyan Tennis Federation and even the local National Olympic Committee, this admirer of Serena Williams wants to maintain the enthusiasm born in the country for her performances. “Once I’m sure I’m going to the Games, it’s going to be crazy. » She will then be able to cross out, in the notebooks where she records all her objectives, the line that mentions Olympic participation. With the added bonus of the joy of experiencing it at Roland-Garros. “I grew up on the hardest clay court in the world, the “murram”. It’s really the worst. It toughened me up, but playing on real clay in Paris would be incredible. »
