Kenin surges after dad/coach changes seats
PARIS — After Sofia Kenin dropped the opening set in the French Open’s fourth round Monday, her father, Alexander, who is also her coach, switched seats in the stands, plopping himself down right next to her opponent’s coach, Emmanuel Planque.
So much for social distancing amid a pandemic.
Whether the elder Kenin’s move, so noticeable in the sea of empty beige seats at Court Philippe Chatrier, actually influenced the outcome can’t be known — the chair umpire gave a warning for coaching, which isn’t allowed during Grand Slam matches; the 2020 Australian Open champion said her dad merely helped by “motivating” — things did turn around soon afterward.
Never before a quarterfinalist at any tour-level clay-court tournament, Kenin reached that stage at Roland Garros by making a key adjustment, taking balls sooner and leaving Fiona Ferro less time to operate in the 21-year-old American’s 2-6, 6-2, 6-1 victory over the last player from France in either singles bracket.
“First of all, I mean, I don’t know, like, why HER coach sat in that section,” said Kenin, who is seeded No. 4, while the 49thranked Ferro was unseeded. “On the right, it’s (for) the higher seed. I would imagine that he would be sitting on the other side.”
A year ago in Paris, Kenin signaled to the world what she was capable of, upsetting Serena Williams in the third round.
“This used to be a surface that I really don’t like,” Kenin said. “Now it’s obviously a surface that I really enjoy.”
She needed to wait a day to find out who she’ll play next, because the match between No.
30 Ons Jabeur of Tunisia and former Virginia Cavaliers star Danielle Collins, scheduled for open-air Suzanne Lenglen Court, was postponed because of rain.
The other quarterfinal in that half of the draw will be two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova against Laura Siegemund.
The men’s quarterfinals established Monday are both rematches: No. 1 Novak Djokovic against No. 17 Pablo Carreno Busta, and No. 5 Stefanos Tsitsipas against No. 13 Andrey Rublev.
Djokovic posted a 6-4, 6-3, 6-3 win over No. 15 seed Karen Khachanov — the 2016 champion has dropped a total of 25 games in four matches. What drew attention was what the 17-time Grand Slam champion termed “very awkward deja vu.”
It was entirely an accident, more of a fluke than anything else, when Djokovic stretched wide of the doubles alley to try to
return a first-set serve, the ball ricocheting off his racket frame and into the head of a seated line judge.
Still, different as it was, the moment conjured memories of the U.S. Open, where Djokovic was disqualified from his fourthround match against Carreno Busta for striking a ball that unintentionally hit a line judge in the throat.
On Monday, Djokovic immediately went over to check on the man, who shook it off and signaled a thumbs-up. Djokovic’s match continued apace, putting him in the French Open quarterfinals for the 11th consecutive year, extending a record he — no, not 12-time champion Rafael Nadal — already held.
This victory moved Djokovic into his 47th Grand Slam quarterfinal. Carreno Busta got to his fourth, and second at Roland Garros, by beating 186th-ranked
Daniel Altmaier, a German qualifier, 6-2, 7-5, 6-2.
Tsitsipas and Rublev both dropped the first two sets they played in Paris last week — and now both are making a French Open quarterfinal debut.
Tsitsipas eliminated No. 18 Grigor Dimitrov 6-3, 7-6 (11-9), 6-2; Rublev defeated Marton Fucsovics 6-7 (4-7), 7-5, 6-4, 7-6 (7-3).