By Alberto Amalfi | Wednesday, January 4, 2023
Enduring a sequence of stops and begins lately, Sofia Kenin believes she’s taking a optimistic activate the comeback path.
World No. 149 Kenin rallied from love-5 down within the tiebreaker to combat off China’s Xinyu Wang 7-6 (6), 6-3 on the ASB Classic in Auckland.
More: Martina Navratilova Diagnosed with Cancer
Three years faraway from her title run on the 2020 Australian Open, Kenin has captured only one title since her beautiful run to her maiden main in Melbourne Park.
A brutal stretch final season noticed Kenin drop 9 straight matches earlier than she snapped the slide reaching the Cleveland quarterfinals and enjoying a couple of WTA 125 occasions to finish the season.
The American wild card says she’s wholesome and hungry to show issues round this season.
“I’m just going to try to take one match at a time,” Kenin instructed the New Zealand Herald. “I feel fit. I’m happy with the way I feel on court.
“So it’s just a matter of things clicking for me and definitely I feel like if I keep going on this path, it should click.”
Kenin’s win vaults her into an Auckland round-of-16 conflict vs. top-seeded Coco Gauff in a match of former French Open finalists. The 24-year-old Kenin beat Gauff of their lone prior Tour-level assembly en path to the 2020 Australian Open title.
The winner of the Gauff-Kenin match will face both 42-year-old Venus Williams or 84th-ranked Lin Zhu within the quarterfinals.
Photo credit score: Getty