Sofia Kenin opted to prepare for Wimbledon far away from it as she's playing a lower-tier WTA event in Italy right now though it's on grass as well.
The former Australian Open champion has seen her career derailed greatly by injuries but like many before her, Kenin is not giving up. She's determined to make her way to the top though it's been a rather shaky journey for a very long time now.
This year has seen her put together some solid performances which is something to build upon and while 11 wins in 24 matches don't look that great it's still a step she needs to make in order to get back to winning 30-40 matches per year like she did before the pandemic. It's something she embraces in her journey.
Her first match on grass happened last week in Nottingham though she didn't manage to beat native player Kartal. Now she made the decision to go to Italy in hopes of playing some lower-ranked players as she needs wins both for her confidence and to get used to playing on grass again. She's a very strong player at her peak noted for her competitiveness.
It proved a good decision as she got Zidansek in the first round, a good player though one that is very allergic to grass. It showed in the match as Kenin was able to overpower her comfortably in both sets. She didn't serve spectacularly in either of those but managed to outplay Zidansek from the baseline as the Slovenian player simply doesn't know how to play well on the surface.
She struggled both behind her first serve and her second serve and generally didn't serve all that well. A good win 6-4, 6-2, for her and a solid draw gives her the chance to go quiter far. Hon and Bonaventure are players she can beat thoug she would likely prefer the former than the latter.
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