Battle of the youngsters in French Open final
TENNIS
PARIS: American Sofia Kenin continued her impressive form in 2020 by advancing to her second Grand Slam final this year with a 64, 75 victory over Czech Petra Kvitova at the French Open yesterday.
Kenin (21), who won the Australian Open at the start of February, will play Polish 19yearold Iga Swiatek in tomorrow’s Roland Garros final after the teenager won 62, 61 against Argentina qualifier Nadia Podoroska.
‘‘I’m just really grateful with the way that I’m playing, with the way things are going,’’ Kenin said. ‘‘It’s not easy getting to a Grand Slam final. Having two this year, it’s really special.’’
Swiatek has never won a tourlevel title and is currently ranked 54th in the world, meaning she is the lowestranked player to contest a final at Roland Garros.
She is also the first Polish player in a Grand Slam final since Agnieszka Radwanska against Serena Williams at Wimbledon in 2012.
‘‘It’s kind of surprising for me,’’ Swiatek said. ‘‘I never would have thought that I’m going to be in the final. It’s crazy. Like a dream come true.’’
Swiatek has not dropped a set throughout her run, which included a revenge win over top seed Simona Halep in the fourth round, after Swiatek’s tournament last year ended in a onesided loss to the Romanian world No 2.
‘‘I feel like I’ve been so efficient and so focused for whole matches that I put a lot of pressure on my opponents,’’ Swiatek said.
‘‘I’m not even nervous in second sets because I know it’s going to probably go my way.’’
She took just 70 minutes on Court PhilippeChatrier to clinch a victory over Podoroska, world No 131, who was the first female qualifier to contest a Roland Garros semifinal.
After a remarkable ninematch run, Podoroska’s time in Paris came to an end as the 23yearold was comprehensively outplayed.
Kvitova, twotime Wimbledon champion, was playing her first French semifinal in eight years since a loss to Maria Sharapova in 2012.
She said it had been an emotional return to Paris because it was the same tournament she made her comeback to the sport after a terrible knife attack at her home in 2017.
‘‘Being in a semifinal here, it was great achievement for me definitely,’’ Kvitova said. ‘‘I’m very happy and grateful for that, for sure. I could be at home watching and not even play tennis any more. Even though loss is painful, which is normal and should be like this, I’m very happy with how everything went.’’
Kvitova’s serve collapsed through a series of errors as Kenin punched to kill the points quickly and sprint to a doublebreak advantage at 41 after just 15 minutes. Kenin held on in the rallies to secure the first set by a single break and the energetic player took control in the second set. — DPA