Nightmare for Kenya as all locals bite dust at ITF Tour
No Kenyan is left in the opening leg of the 2019 ITF World Tennis Tour after all the three wild card players were eliminated in the round of 16 at Peponi School, Nairobi yesterday.
Home favourite Angela Okutoyi was the last local casualty despite fighting hard to the end of the three-set contest against Burundian Sada Nahimana who is ranked 10th.
Okutoyi, who won the first set, had to settle for second best as the impressive Nahimana ended up clinching it 2-6, 6-2,7-6(3) after almost two hours on the court.
The duo of Faith Nyabera and Judy Nkatha fell off in the third round against highly-rated European tour players as the race for the big money prize continues.
Dutch girl Lexie Stevens, who is seeded fourth in this tournament, easily saw off Nkatha in straight sets of 6-0, 6-0 in a match that barely troubled the winner.
Nkatha seemed out of sorts as her shots and serves failed to make much of an impact even as she made countless errors.
Stevens was dominant and ruthless as he found good momentum on the swing.
Her reflexes and placements helped her cause so much so that she hardly dropped a single game. Nkatha, who 48 hours ago came through a marathon three sets against Gabonese starlet Manuella Nyondo, was shaky as she battled through.
Meanwhile, Nyabera gave a good fight but it was not enough as she eventually lost 6-2, 6-2 to Serbian Nevena Sokovic. The start was fairly balanced as both players exchanged points on play.
