Kenya’s tennis star Angella Okutoyi has signed to join the Auburn University tennis programme by next March.
She broke the news on her social media accounts on Monday. “Super excited to announce that I will be continuing my tennis career and education at Auburn University,” she tweeted in a photo wearing a lanyard written Auburn Tennis.
She is joining the Alabama-based university this spring, announced the university’s women tennis head coach Caroline Lilley on Monday at 9.42am, American time.
According to the coach, Okutoyi, who is the first Kenyan to win a Grand Slam title “is a trailblazer” and “role model for future generations of aspiring tennis players”.
Reiterated the coach: “With a plethora of international experience on the biggest stages in junior tennis, she has remained grounded in her commitment to prioritizing her development as a person above all else.”
Calling her Angie, the coach, said the tennis player does things the right way, holds herself to a high standard and allows her moral compass to guide her.
Lilley has been with the Tigers — how the university’s women tennis team is known –since 2019, a year after earning her MBA with a Finance leaning from Kansas University.
“I chose Auburn because I was raised the Tiger way,” said Okutoyi, 18, who is a two time African junior champion in singles and ranked the best junior player on the continent.
Across many platforms, the 10 US universities with best tennis programmes are UCLA, Stanford, USC, Ohio State Univetsity, University of Virginia, and University of Florida.
Wake Forest University, University of Georgia, University of California (Berkeley), and University of Texas-Austin also make make the top-10 list.
