Serena Williams has inspired countless fellow tennis players over the years and Kenyan tennis history-maker Angella Okutoyi became the latest to join the chorus of players idolizing Williams. The Kenyan teenager admires the 23-time singles Grand Slam champion’s hard work and determination and aims to emulate the same.

Okutoyi became the first Kenyan player to win a Grand Slam title after she clinched the Wimbledon girls’ doubles title on Saturday. The 18-year-old, who was also the first Kenyan to win a girls’ singles match at a Major courtesy of her first win at the 2022 Australian Open, spoke about gaining inspiration from Serena Williams during an interview earlier this year.

“Serena Williams’s story is inspiring. What she has achieved throughout her career is unbelievable. Her determination and hard work year in year out is what keeps me going,” Okutoyi said of the American superstar.

At the 2022 Wimbledon Championships, the unseeded pair of Angella Okutoyi and Rose Marie Nijkamp stunned fourth seeds Kayla Cross and Victoria Mboko in the final to win the title. Okutoyi bowed out in the first round of the singles event. She previously made the third round at the 2022 Australian Open juniors event. While Okutoyi takes inspiration from Serena Williams, her own story is quite inspiring, to say the least. Oprhaned at birth and raised by her grandmother, the Kenyan youngster recalled her early struggles and how she overcame them.

“We (Angela and her sister) started with nothing, she (grandmother) had four jobs to keep me on the pitch, at one time we slept on the couch. For a family with no money, we may have looked and sounded crazy. Children would laugh at us, call us names, we became the joke, but we kept our heads down. We did our fighting with actions on track,” Okutoyi said during the interview.

“I come from a humble background. Growing up, I was heavily into sports like cricket and tennis and my grandmother and coach were very supportive, but I knew deep down the expenses were a lot for them to manage,” she added.