Kenin heading to French Open finals
PARIS — Pembroke Pines resident Sofia Kenin entered 2020 with an 11-11 record in Grand Slam action. Never had made the quarterfinals at any clay-court tournament until this trip to Roland Garros— and lost her only tuneup match on the surface 6-0, 6-0 last month.
Look at the 21-year-old now. Already the owner of a major trophy from this year’s Australian Open, the No. 4-seeded Kenin moved into the French Open final by beating No. 7 Petra Kvitova 6-4, 7-5 on Thursday.
“My mentality has obviously changed,” said Kenin, who said she derived a boost of confidence from upsetting Serena Williams at Roland Garros a year ago. “I feel like I should be getting deep in a tournament, but try not to put pressure on myself.”
Kenin will carry a 16-1 mark in Grand Slam action this season into Saturday’s championship match against Iga Swiatek of Poland.
“I’m going to be, like, an ‘underdog,’” Swiatek said, using her fingers to make air quotes.
Swiatek is just 19. She’s ranked 54th. She’s never won a tour-level title. She’d never been past the fourth round at a Slam. And she’s
been as dominant as can be so far at the French Open.
Swiatek became the lowest-women’s finalist at Roland Garros since the WTA computer rankings began in 1975, advancing with her latest lopsided win, this one 6-2, 6-1 against Argentine qualifier Nadia Podoroska.
“It seems unreal. On one hand, I knowthat I can play great tennis. On the other hand, it’s kind of surprising for me. I never would have thought that I’m going to be in the final. It’s crazy,” Swiatek said. “I just kept believing in myself. It’s amazing for me.”
She has won all 12 sets she’s played in the tournament and dropped merely 23 games.
Kvitova, a two-time Wimbledon champion, came in having won every set, too. But she hadn’t played anyone close to Kenin’s caliber.
The lefty from the Czech Republic had grabbed 77% of her service games in the tournament, but Kenin stole two of the first three. Part of itwas strong returning. More of it was the manner in which Kenin was moving Kvitova around, pushing her this way and that and pinning her to the baseline with well-struck forehands and backhands.
Also working in Kenin’s favor was an ability to sense where a ball was headed and use her speed to track it down, repeatedly stretching points that seemed lost.
Eventually, that appeared to make Kvitova play as if she felt that she needed to try todomore, may be do too much, because she would cut off points early by attempting to end them — and, too often, she would miss the mark.
By the end, Kvitova produced 31 unforced errors, to 20 for Kenin, whose shouts of “Come on!” grew louder as the end grew closer. Her intensity also came through when she chucked her red-white-racket.
“I mean, obviously I felt like I could not overpower her. I knew I just needed to adjust my game,” Kenin said. “I had to control the points, move her, dictate, try not to give her short balls, try to have a good serve.”
When Swiatek’s 70-minute tour de force ended before a crowd in the hundreds at Court Philippe Chatrier— therewas a daily limit on spectators because of the coronavirus pandemic— she asked for more noise, waving her arms and cupping a hand to her ear.
Swiatek vs. Podoroska was the first women’s semifinal at Roland Garros between unseeded opponents since 1983 — and only one, Swiatek, truly seemed ready for the stage.
Podoroska is ranked 131st, the first female qualifier in the professional era to get to the final four in Paris.
Just in case someone might get the idea thiswas a fluke for Swiatek, who listens to “Welcome to the Jungle” by Guns N’Roses in her headphones before stepping out on court: She eliminated 2018 champion and No. 1 seed Simona Halep 6-1, 6-2 in the fourth round, after defeating 2019 runner-up Marketa Vondrousova by the same score in the first.