Kenyan tennis star Angella Okutoyi launched her campaign at the ITF W35 Verbier in Switzerland on a victorious note after battling past France’s Laia Petretic 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 on Monday, August 18, 2026.
The African Games singles gold medallist, who is seeded fourth, needed two hours and 14 minutes to overcome the unseeded Petretic on her preferred clay surface and advance to the second round.
Ranked 508th in the WTA singles standings, Okutoyi made a promising start by taking a 2-1 lead in the opening set, but lost momentum at 4-4 after Petretic broke her serve before closing out the set.
The Kenyan responded strongly in the second set. Although she trailed 0-1 and 1-2, she took control after levelling at 2-2 following a tense service game featuring three deuces. Okutoyi moved 5-2 ahead and held her nerve after Petretic threatened a comeback by winning two successive games.
Okutoyi again started the decisive set brightly, breaking Petretic before holding serve for a 2-0 lead. Ranked 698th, Petretic fought back to level at 4-4, but the Kenyan stayed composed, breaking serve again before winning her own service game to seal victory.
Okutoyi fired four aces to Petretic’s one and won 52 percent of points behind her second serve, compared with her opponent’s 40 percent. She won 63 percent of first-serve points against Petretic’s 70 percent, despite landing 72 percent of her first serves compared with 63 percent by the Frenchwoman.
Okutoyi committed five double faults, while Petretic had 12.
The victory earns Okutoyi four WTA singles points and USD462, while Petretic takes home USD297.
Okutoyi will meet either British qualifier Scarlet Kavanagh or Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Ayline Esina Samardzic in the second round.
The win also ends a run of three successive defeats on hard courts for the 22-year-old. She was eliminated in the second round of W35 Aldershot in week 31, followed by first-round exits at W35 Roehampton and W35 Aldershot in week 34.
Okutoyi, who relocated to the UK after completing her undergraduate studies at Auburn University in the United States in May, is also competing in doubles alongside Emma Kamper from Denmark. The third seeds received a first-round bye and will face Aliesia Reva (Ukraine) and Federica Trevisan (Italy) in the quarter-finals.
