Sofia Kenin will return to the place where she won her first WTA title, as she signed up to compete at the 2025 Hobart International.
The American player will enter the 2025 season as the World No. 81, which means she might find herself in difficulties when trying to enter tournaments.
She will enter Grand Slams easily, but making it into the draws of WTA 250 or WTA 500 events might be much more complicated for the 26-year-old player, who was once ranked fourth in the world.
Therefore, arranging events in the opening weeks of the new season, ahead of the Australian Open, which she won in 2020, was relatively tricky for Kenin this year.
Luckily, as a former Grand Slam champion, she can often rely on wild cards from tournament organizers. Kenin had a good end to the 2024 season, and that was maybe one of the reasons that convinced the Hobart International organizers to grant her one of the wild cards.
Ranked 81st in the world, Kenin just barely didn't make the main draw cut-off for the 2025 Hobart International, with Sloane Stephens, ranked 76th, being the last player to make it directly into the main draw.
With a few withdrawals, Kenin could have made it to the main draw regardless, but that's not something she wanted to wait for, and the tournament organizers spared her of that waiting as she joined Daria Saville as a wild card recipient.
Kenin was naturally happy about receiving the wild card, sharing the good news with her fans through an Instagram story.
"Hey guys, it's Sofia. I'm super excited to be returning back to Hobart. I won my first WTA title there. I can not wait to play in front of my fans. I can't wait to see the ball kids there."
"I'm super excited to get everybody's support. I'm training hard in my off-season, and I'm looking forward to seeing you guys in January."
Kenin competed at the Hobart International three times. In 2019, on her debut, she won the title in Hobart, beating the likes of Ons Jabeur and Caroline Garcia along the way.
In 2023, she reached the semi-final, and in 2024, she lost to fellow wild card recipient in 2025, Daria Saville. The tournament director for the 2025 Hobart International, Darren Sturgess, was happy to announce that Kenin would play at the tournament as well.
"Six years ago, Kenin captured her maiden WTA crown here at the Hobart International which kickstarted a golden two-year period for her. We see this often happen for players who come to Hobart and then hit the world stage afterwards, like Emma Navarro who was the 2024 Hobart International Champion and is now World No. 8."
"Sonya, as she prefers to be known, loves coming to Hobart as she has great memories here, loves the tournament and loves to explore Hobart. Players love the laid-back environment of Hobart ahead of the Australian Open."
Latest Comments
- Kyrgios will do anything to stay in the news.shirley19-12-2024
- A technical error.
MrMustard18-12-2024 - All that is said , all that is done. Nick has 0 grand slams wins. Everything else is hot 🥵 air.MrMustard18-12-2024
- All that is said , all that isMrMustard18-12-2024
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Stella112-12-2024 - All players should be treated the same for taking banned substances, if your no 1 in the world or no 300 man or woman you should not be allowed to keep playing,,VPH108-12-2024
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