Kenin crumbles under pressure of title defence
MELBOURNE: A tearful Sofia Kenin admitted the pressure of defending a Grand Slam title for the first time had proved too great after she tumbled out of the Australian Open in the second round on Thursday.
The 22-year-old American looked a shadow of the player that won her first major title at Melbourne Park and reached the French Open final last season as she succumbed 6-3, 6-2 to Estonian veteran Kaia Kanepi on Margaret Court Arena.
Ashen-faced, with her eyes already blotchy before she sat down for her post-match media conference, Kenin struggled to hold back the tears as she explained what had happened out on court.
“My head wasn’t there,” she said. “Obviously I’m not going to take any credit away from her. She played really well at those good points. I had chances. I just couldn’t take it. I obviously know why because the nerves big-time got to me.”
The tears returned again when she was asked about the pressure of defending the title, adding that she knew retaining the trophy would be a tall order given her mental state.
“I’m not there 100% physically, mentally, my game. Everything just feels real off obviously. It’s not good,” she added.
“It’s weird. I’ve been practicing for two weeks. Luckily I’ve been able to practice. I felt fine in practice. Just couldn’t do that in the game.”
Russian-born Kenin said she had not decided where she would play next but admitted she had a lot of thinking to do about how to arrest the slump in her form. “I know I couldn’t really handle the pressure,” she said.
“I’m not obviously used to this, so right now I just got to figure out how to play at that level that I played at. Because like today and those matches, it just hasn’t been there.”
The exit of the fourth seed, even at the hands of a player who last week was ranked 94th in the world, was not the surprise it might have been given that Kenin had been talking about struggling with her nerves since finishing quarantine. “The Australia trip, that was something that I had my eye on,” she said. “I knew I was going to have pressure. I knew I was going to have emotions, nerves, everything all together. Yeah, for sure
Australia, the Aussie swing, definitely got me.”
Barty wins
World No 1 Ash Barty suffered a meltdown on the brink of victory but regathered herself to fend off local compatriot Daria Gavrilova 6-1 7-6(7) and reach the third round of the Australian Open on Thursday. Barty, who came onto centre court with her left thigh strapped, served for the match at 5-2 but was broken twice in a hail of unforced errors, allowing wildcard Gavrilova to drag the contest deep into a tiebreak.
Fortunately for Barty, Gavrilova reprieved her twice with unforced errors on set point and then coughed up another on match point to surrender on a steamy day at Rod Laver Arena.
Having destroyed first round opponent Danka Kovinic 6-0 6-0 in 44 minutes, Barty said her slump against Gavrilova was par for the course after missing almost the entire 2020 season.
“I think it’s natural,” the top seed told reporters.
“I mean, I haven’t played a lot of tennis over the last 12 months. Obviously (I’m) going to have ebbs and flows, not only in your concentration but your level of play as well. It’s important to be able to bring that back as often as possible. For a couple of games, I wasn’t able to do that.”
Divij, Ankita bow out
India’s Divij Sharan and Ankita Raina crashed out of the Australian Open men’s and women’s doubles events respectively, after suffering straight set defeats in the opening round. Ankita, the third Indian woman player to secure a place in the main draw of a Grand Slam event, and her partner Mihaela Buzarnecu of Romania lost 3-6, 0-6 to Australian wild card pair of Olivia Gadecki and Belinda Woolcock.
In men’s doubles, Divij and his Slovakian partner Igor Zelenay lost 1-6, 4-6 against the Germany’s Yannick Hanfmann and Kevin Krawietz in the first round.