- The three-time Kenya Open champion said despite the setback, she remains strongly committed to featuring at the prestigious tournament in the future.
- She said she hopes that in future, organizers of Olympics games will consider a continent championship good enough for direct qualification.
Image: ANGELLA OKUTOYI/X
Africa's tennis champion Angela Okutoyi has bemoaned missing the chance to feature at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games after she failed to qualify by missing a slot in the top 400.
Okutoyi is currently ranked 495 but needed to be in the top 400 by June 10 to qualify for the Olympics.
In a statement on X, the three-time Kenya Open champion said despite the setback, she remains strongly committed to featuring at the prestigious tournament in the future.
“Writing this with mixed emotions, but first l thank God for always being here with me. It’s been tough even to reach where l am now and one of my many ultimate goals was to see myself playing at the Olympics and l was really setting my eyes on this one after missing Tokyo’s on,” she said.
The 2022 Wimbledon Doubles junior champion said she has always dreamt of representing Kenya at the highest level in tennis and just changing the game’s narrative not just in Kenya but across the continent.
She said she hopes that in future, organisers of the Olympic games will consider a continent championship good enough for a player to qualify.
“My prayer is in the near future that a continental win should be a direct ticket cause it’s not easy playing the best of your continent and considering Africa we don’t have many opportunities too,” she said.
“This one hurts but I’m going to stay strong and look forward to greater things that l have faith are waiting for me. I will work hard to see myself on the next Olympics; was close this time but felt far away,” she added.
As at April, Okutoyi was ranked 544th in the world and had lined up five tournaments between then and the cut-off date but managed to climb only 49 slots to 495.
Among the tournaments she hand banked on improving her global ranking included the W75 Charlottesville tournament in the USA and the Billie Jean King Cup at the Nairobi Club, Nairobi.
She did not win any points at the Africa Games in Accra, Ghana earlier in March since the African Games are not sanctioned by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA).
“I’m looking forward to earning as many rankings points to qualify for the Olympics. It's a race against time but I am working hard with my college coaching team to improve on certain aspects of play,” she said then.
The Auburn University student thanked her support team including the Kenya Tennis Federation, coach Francis Rogoi, Auburn Women Tennis and fans for standing with her as she pursued the Paris Olympic dream.
“Will switch my focus now to Morocco and I’m hungrier. They say ‘the comeback is always greater than the setbacks’”, she said.