When Sofia Kenin was having the best time of her career, “The Wall Street Journal” published an article entitled “Why Sofia Kenin could be the Tom Brady of tennis”. It pointed to the great mental toughness that connects her and the American football legend. At one point, she lacked this mental strength a bit, but now she is supposed to be on the court like a rock again, although for now she is not able to break through to the top again. And several factors – according to Ava Wallace from the “Washington Post” – should make Iga Świątek’s fans not underestimate Kenin before their opening match at Wimbledon.
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Kenin stunned the tennis world a year ago. Expert reveals what she needs to do to beat Świątek
“I’d love to talk about Sofia Kenin, but I have to admit that I only know a little bit about her at the moment,” Wallace says when I approach her in the big Wimbledon press office. And I’m sure you could hear the same from any other American tennis journalist, because Kenin is now only the country’s number six player. All eyes are on Coco Gauff, who is seen as the future successor to the legendary Serena Williams.
– It’s also an advantage, because Sofia doesn’t have the same pressure as she did after winning the Australian Open. She’s not the one who’s in the spotlight. But she’s capable of returning to the top, and that’s why competing with her is a challenge. It’s very important that she beat Coco at Wimbledon last year. [w pierwszej rundzie – red.]. Even though she is a Grand Slam champion, she was not considered a serious threat to Gauff at the time. She said later that she wanted to prove people wrong – recalls the journalist from the “Washington Post”.
On paper, Kenin really didn’t stand much of a chance against her much higher-ranked compatriot. Gauff was the seventh-ranked player in the world and had twice previously reached the 1/8 finals in London, while Kenin, as the 128th player on the WTA list, had to go through three-stage qualifications to even make it to the main draw in London. And she had never made it past the second round in this event before. In last year’s edition, she stopped in the third.
According to Wallace, having to fight her way through the qualifiers has been helpful. The journalist reminds us that the grass season is very short and that each additional match played has a much greater significance here than on other surfaces. The 25-year-old Kenin has won one WTA tournament on grass – in 2019. This season, she preceded her arrival in London with a performance in Eastbourne, where, as a “lucky loser” from the qualifiers, she played straight into the second round (in the first she took a “bye”) against the British Harriet Dart (105th WTA).
It is difficult to call it a good result, but the American now has an advantage over Iga Świątek in terms of experience on this surface. After her fourth triumph in Roland Garros, the world ranking leader decided to rest and only trained on grass before Wimbledon. She had previously decided on such an option two years ago. At that time, she said goodbye to the competition in London in the third round.
So far, these tennis players have faced each other twice, and both in the Roland Garros 2020 final and in the first round of the Australian Open in January, the three-years-younger Pole came out on top. Now, they will meet for the first time on the grass.
– If Sofia is going to beat Iga, it’s going to be on grass. It’s not like she’s doing anything better than Świątek in terms of any particular shot or element of her game. But they’ll meet early in the tournament, and she’s more at ease on this surface. First of all, she has to knock the Pole out of her rhythm. She knows she can’t wait with her shots, and she has to add great defense to that. I don’t think she can be underestimated. She’s consistent, she’s got that memory from a year ago, and she’s capable of fighting Iga. I’d be surprised if it was a completely one-sided match. I’m rather expecting a close one – predicts Wallace.
Match of two emotional icebergs. Over 400 places in the rankings dropped in nine months
She also points to the great mental resilience that Kenin is famous for. “I think she believes in herself and that she is able to beat Iga, although it is the hardest thing in the world right now. They are both similar – they usually do not show too much emotion on the court, they are very determined and stable. It will be interesting to see a match between two emotional icebergs,” the journalist describes.
Kenin showed stronger emotions right after a match once – at the Australian Open 2021, when she was eliminated in the second round. At a press conference, she admitted, crying, that she could not cope with the pressure that was placed on her as the defending champion.
The Moscow-born American is a former fourth-ranked player in the world, and from this perspective it may be a bit surprising that last year’s victory over Gauff in London was her first Grand Slam main draw win in two years. The main reason was health problems. She missed the second half of the 2021 season due to a foot injury, then she tested positive for COVID-19, and she missed the clay and grass court competition in 2022 due to ankle problems. In October 2021, she was eighth in the ranking, but less than six months later she dropped out of the Top 100, and after nine months she was 426th.
The drastic drop in her rankings has seen her return to lower-level events. She has been laboriously climbing the world rankings and the competition. Last year’s final in San Diego in September was her first tour title match in three and a half years, and propelled her to 31st. She is now 18 places lower. She is still waiting for her first triumph since March 2020.
In the case of the American, her father also draws attention. Alexander Kenin moved to the US with his wife when Sofia was a few months old. At first, he studied during the day and earned money as a New York taxi driver at night. After some time, the family settled permanently in Florida, and it was there that the girl began her tennis adventure. Although Alexander only occasionally played recreationally and had no knowledge of training, he became her coach. And he is still her coach today, although they had a break of several months in mid-2021.
Now they both dream of returning to the top of tennis. Their wings could have been clipped a bit by what happened after the previous duel with Świątek – Kenin also lost seven consecutive matches. She broke this streak only when at the turn of April and May she played in a lower-ranking tournament (125 – the equivalent of a men’s challenger) in Spain, facing Irene Burillo Escorihuela, ranked 235. The competition on clay allowed her to get out of the hole a bit – she reached the third round of the “thousander” in Rome (there she defeated Ons Jabeur, among others) and in Roland Garros (here she dismissed Caroline Garcia). But is she capable of causing a sensation in London and eliminating Świątek? The first round of Wimbledon between these tennis players will take place on Tuesday late afternoon.
2024-07-02 12:40:00
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