Wimbledon Junior Doubles champion Angella Okutoyi and her French partner Beverley Nyangom have reached the doubles final of the International Tennis Federation (ITF) Women’s World Tennis Tour W15 Monastir in Tunisia on Friday.
They benefited from the retirement of their opponents Raquel Gonzalez of Spain and Sofia Camila Rojas of the United States of America in the first set.
Okutoyi and Nyangom were leading 5-2 in 23 minutes when Raquel and Sofia retired.
Okutoyi and Nyangom will play the fourth-seeded Italian pair of Samira De Stefano and Gala Parravicini in the final on Saturday.
The Italians saw off second seeds Doga Turkmen (Turkey) and Marie Villet (France) 6-3, 6-4 in the other semi-final.
Okutoyi and Nyangom stunned top seeds Abigail Amos (Great Britain) and Arabella Koller (Austria) 6-2, 6-1 in their quarter-finals clash on Thursday.
They took to the court hours after Okutoyi surrendered 2-1 at the hands of Russian Vlada Mincheva in the round of 16 singles.
Okutoyi and Nyangom required one hour and nine minutes to punch the semi-final ticket in the doubles.
In the singles category, the 2018 Kenya Open champion, Okutoyi, started brightly against Mincheva and bagged the first set easily 6-1.
The 2022 Rwanda Open champion was well on course to finish the match in the second set, but gave up a four-game lead in the 7-6 loss.
She came from 2-0 behind, leveling 2-2 and then 3-3 in the third set, but could not find a way to topple the 16-year-old Russian.
“I played the right way (against Mincheva), but I think today was one of those days where l couldn’t execute my opportunities. This is a lesson to me that I should take all my chances,” the 19-year-old told Nation Sport on Thursday.
She dominated her Russian opponent in many departments, but was beaten at the break points won where she had 33 percentage against Mincheva’s 44 percentage.
In the doubles, Okutoyi and Nyangom outwitted wild cards Chahd Berriri and Roua Limem from Tunisia 6-0, 6-0 in the first round.
Mincheva defeated Italian qualifier Francesca Dell’Edera 6-1, 6-2 in one hour and eight minutes on Wednesday, a day after Auburn University student Okutoyi stunned eighth-seed Julia Stamatova from Bulgaria 6-2, 6-1 in Tunisia in round of 32.
Okutoyi had a career best ITF Junior Singles ranking of 49 before graduating to the senior ranks in September last year. Mincheva’s career-high ranking in the ITF Junior Singles is 626.
