It happened back in 2017, on Tennis Acumen’s annual pilgrimage to Surprise, AZ for the Women's ITF $25K tournament. In years past, we had seen Jo Konta, Monica Puig and Catherine Bellis in action. In 2017, we went to see 2016 Wimbledon Junior Champion Anastasia Potapova.
As we were watching Potapova play in Surprise, several other matches were taking place. One match in particular caught our attention: Sofia Kenin in action. With thirty people watching the Potapova match, there was not a soul watching Kenin. During the Potapova match, we did make the short walk, two courts over, to watch some of Kenin's match, but… like everyone else, we wanted to watch the Junior Wimbledon Champion play that day.
Fast forward to 2019: Kenin won her first WTA title in Hobart without dropping a set. In March, Kenin would reach the Acapulco final, defeating Victoria Azarenka and Bianca Andreescu in the process.
Sofia Kenin would then stun the tennis establishment with a 6-2 7-5 victory over Serena Williams in the 3rd round at Roland Garros. Kenin also beat Belinda Bencic in a three-set final to win the Mallorca title. Next, Kenin would reach semifinals in Toronto, where she defeated Ash Barty and in Cincinnati, defeating Naomi Osaka. Kenin would win her third title of the year in Guangzhou, defeating former US Open Champion Sam Stosur in a three-set final.
Thus, perhaps Sofia Kenin's victory in the 2020 Australian Open was already in the making, when nobody was watching. In 2019 alone, she defeated Grand Slam Champions: Serena Williams, Ashley Barty, Bianca Andreescu, Garbine Muguruza and Victoria Azarenka.
In Melbourne, Kenin dropped just two sets in the fortnight, one to fellow American upstart CoCo Gauff in the opening set of their 4th round match. After correcting course against Gauff, Kenin lost just three of the next fifteen games and recorded an impressive bagel in the third set of that match. Against Ash Barty in the semifinals, the Australian world #1 held set points in both sets but it was Kenin who would prevail to march to the final. The other lost set was the opening set in the final against Garbine Muguruza. Kenin then went on to win twelve of the next sixteen games to win the title.
Following the Championship match, Kenin elaborated: "I knew I had to take my chance. I had to be brave by playing a two-time Grand Slam champion. All respect to her. She played a really tough match. Every point, it was such a battle. A lot of moving. A lot of emotions on court from both sides."
Sofia Kenin entered the Australian Open as the #14 seed in the tournament. She departs Melbourne as a Major Champion and the world #7 in the new WTA rankings.
Her rise from obscurity has been astonishing. Three years away from a match that nobody wanted to see... to a Grand Slam title in Australia.
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