Kenya tennis players lost the grip on home ground, chickening out of the International Tennis Federation (ITF) women’s World Tennis Tour at Peponi school.
Nation’s top players Angela Okutoyi, Judith Nkatha and Faith Nyabera today lost their pre-quarter-final matches.
Okutoyi went head-to-head with Burundian Sada Nahimana in a match that lasted over an hour.
The players engaged in a battle of wits in the match which witnessed a tiebreak in the third set.
Both Okutoyi put their best foot forward but the match ended 6-2, 2-6, 7-6 in favour of the Burundian.
Nyabera’s hopes of reaching women’s singles quarter-finals went up in smoke after losing 6-2, 6-2 to Serbia’s Nevena Sokovic. The seeded Sokovic who is ranked 989th in the world capitalised on strong serves and speed to floor Nyabera.
In the second match of the day, Nkatha lost 6-0, 6-0 to Lexie Stevens of the Netherlands.
Stevens, who is also a seeded player and is ranked 227th in the world, forced Nkatha to make mistakes in the match. Both players displayed strong serves.