Deja vu as Nigeria beat Kenya at Billie Jean King for second year running

NAIROBI, Kenya, June 13 – Kenya suffered their first loss at the Billie Jean King Cup, going down 2-1 to Nigeria in their playoff match at the Nairobi Club on Thursday.

The hosts began the day badly when Alicia Owegi went down 6-0 6-1 to Barakat Quadre.

African Games champion Angella Okutoyi equalled the tie when she defeated Adesuwa Osabuohien 6-3 6-3.

Okutoyi teamed up with twin sister Roselinda Asumwa to duel with Quadre and Osabuohien in the doubles, which was the deciding fixture of the afternoon.

The West Africans won 6-3 in the first set before the second one went to tie break, with the Nigerians eventually triumphing 7-6(5) to collect the overall win.

It was déjà vu for Kenya considering it was Nigeria that beat them 2-1 at last year’s edition of the same competition to snuff out the hosts’ hope of making the finals – and a shot at qualifying for Group II of the competition.

Nigeria next face top seed South Africa on Friday at the same venue.

In other ties of the day, Botswana beat Burundi 2-1 in the 4^th-6^th playoff as Namibia excelled over Uganda with the same scoreline in the 10^th to 12^th playoff.

Madagascar whitewashed Ghana 3-0 in the 7^th to 9^th playoff.