On a more joyous note, the Sofia Kenin- Cori Gauff match was a thriller and VERY high quality for the most part, ok, Gauff probably didn't enjoy it as much as viewers or her opponent, but it was fun to watch and to see the return of Kenin who has had an awful time of things since her glorious 2020, when she won the Australian Open and reached the final at Roland Garros. Injury, COVID, a fall out with her coach, who is also her father and then a reuniting of the pair and contributing to her woes. Her ranking fell to #415 last August and she is only back inside the top 100 this week, for the first time in 18 months, Kenin was #6 at Wimbledon two years ago. If she stays injury free it seems impossible for her not to return to the top 20 as a minimum and I was "super" impressed, as Kenin herself would say, using the word about 50 times in a very excited two minute post match interview.

 

It is hard to explain how Kenin has not gone beyond R2 at Wimbledon before, this is her 4th visit, in each she has lost in the second round, this time she is scheduled to meet Wang Xinyu and that should help, the US-Russian leads the h2h 2-0 , both wins in straight sets and one was here at Wimbledon two years ago. Kenin doesn't have a big serve, but she places the ball as well as anyone and only dropped three points on it in the first set yesterday and then won 15 points in a row on serve in the second set and that against the #7 player in the world. Her movement is great, she was chasing down almost everything yesterday and Kenin has a variety of shots we too rarely see on the WTA Tour, she can hit both forehand and backhand winners which are heavily disguised and also slice with both shots too . Her timing of the ball is immaculate and as good as you will see. 

 

I am not sure why her comeback has taken so long, but first signs in Indian Wells that she might be on the way back and that was reinforced in Rome when she beat Aryna Sabalenka in two sets. She has now won four matches at these championships as she had to qualify ( all three Q wins in two sets) and feels battle hardened . Only Kenin herself knows why she has not had more success at Wimbledon  previously, as she has the game for it and she is 10-1 in Mallorca on grass, with wins over Bencic/Jabeur/Garcia. 

 

I am not sure when her match with Wang will be played, it is scheduled for tomorrow, but could be held over another day given the weather, but I expect her to win that. The Chinese player is 4-20 against top 50 opponents and within that 0-3 on grass ( all in two sets) including that loss to Kenin we have already touched upon. Kenin is not top 50 currently, but is all that and more ability wise and Wang has only a 26.56% win rate versus top 100 players.

 

 

Good luck!