Following a four-year hiatus, the Kenya Open tennis championship returns at the Nairobi Club from August 7-13.
The tournament was not held in 2019 due to a lack of a sponsor. It was also shelved between 2020 and 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Subsequently, it was dropped last year due to a crowded calendar.
Tennis Kenya (TK) executive officer, Nancy Nduku, said they are delighted to have the tournament back on the calendar and expects a big turnout of players for the prestigious event.
"We are expecting a good turnout considering this is our flagship tournament which brings together the best players not only locally but from the continent and even Europe,” observed Nduku
She said she expects top players from Zimbabwe, Egypt, Algeria, South Africa, and European nations to grace the week-long event.
The event will feature five categories thus—singles (men and women), doubles, mixed doubles, wheelchair singles (men and women) and doubles alongside men and women seniors (50 plus years) doubles and mixed doubles in the same category.
Nduku said the total prize money for the tournament will be Sh700,000 with the entry fee set at Sh2000.
Former Wimbledon doubles junior champion, Angela Okutoyi and Ibrahim Kibet won the 2018 edition with Okutoyi making history as the youngest-ever Kenya Open winner.
She upset three-time Kenya Open champion Shufaa Changawa winning 6-1,7-6. Kibet defeated Ismael Changawa 7-5, 6-4 to win the men's title.
Nduku said they will release the tournament seedings and draw next week once they have received all entries.
Elsewhere, Okutoyi will be hoping to go past the quarterfinals of the women's 15s tournament in Tunisia this week.
The US-based student bowed out in the quarterfinals last week in the second tournament when she lost to Italian Cristina Tiglea 1-6, 6-2, 6-4.
“I'm looking forward to the third leg of the event. I am improving with every tournament played and now with one remaining, this gives me a good chance of maybe reaching the semifinal or final," noted Okutoyi.
