Sofia Kenin hasn't had the best season so far, and even returning to the North American tennis courts hasn't brought anything new for the former Grand Slam champion.
Kenin surprisingly won the Australian Open a few years ago to telegraph a potential breakout. It was a stunning display from the American who was young, coming up and showing a lot of promise.
She showed it even the year before, including in Toronto, where she made the semi-final in 2019, a few months before she would break out at the Australian Open.
Kenin would add another trophy in Lyon before the pandemic hit, and even that didn't shake her. She played extremely well at Roland Garros that year, making the final, and it seemed like she was slated for some very exciting tennis years.
That wouldn't happen as injuries started bothering her, and while they're behind her now, it totally derailed a fantastic breakout for her. Confidence issues have persisted in recent months, especially this year when the American failed to really play good tennis consistently.
She would have played a few good rallies but then played a couple of bad ones, which impacted her results. She had one good game, two bad games, and was simply not consistent enough to win a lot of matches.
By the time this WTA 1000 event rolled around, Kenin had played 25 matches and won only 7 in 2024. That's a terrible mark, but there was hope that she would turn it around once she touched the North American hard courts again.
She played her first match in North America at the 2024 Canadian Open, and it didn't go that well. Kenin suffered from the same problem. At times, she was good, and at other times, she was too bad.
Overall, she was more worse than good, and eventually, it cost her the match. The opponent was Yafan Wang, an opponent which she could have beaten. We know that because, at times, she did outplay the Chinese player, but overall, she wasn't able to outplay her for the duration of the match.
The opening set was a crazy one with a lot of twists and turns. Wang took a 2-0 lead initially, but Kenin pulled it back to make it 2-2. Then, Wang made it 3-2, after which Kenin broke back for the 3-3 score.
She made it 4-3 and 5-4, but Wang was still able to outplay her with a three-game run to finish the opening set 7-5. The second one was even more crazy because Wang took a 3-0 lead, after which Kenin staged a superb comeback with some smashing tennis.
She won four games in a row to take a 4-3 lead but wasn't able to create too much pressure after that. The set would end up in a tie-break, which wasn't that close because, again, when it mattered the most, the American couldn't find her best tennis.
Wang was able to win the tie-break 7-3 to escape the match in two sets, 7-5, 7-6(3). For Kenin, this was the fifth consecutive loss.
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