GREAT RUN HALTED Kenin repulses Gauff in duel of young stars
MELBOURNE, Australia – Coco Gauff’s latest history-making Grand Slam run at age 15 ended with a 6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-0 loss in the Australian Open’s fourth round to Sofia Kenin on Sunday.
Like Gauff, Kenin is a young – although, at 21, not quite as young – American and she reached her first major quarterfinal with the victory.
In her previous match, Gauff beat Naomi Osaka to become the youngest player in the professional era to defeat the reigning women’s champion at the Australian Open.
But Gauff did not play as well this time, winding up with 48 unforced errors, more than twice as many as Kenin’s 22.
After dropping the opening set, Kenin immediately tilted things her way, breaking in the initial game and never letting that lead slip away.
When it ended, appropriately enough, on a missed backhand by Gauff, Kenin dropped her racket at the baseline and covered her face as tears welled in her eyes.
Just before Gauff announced herself last season by becoming the youngest qualifier in Wimbledon history and beating Venus Williams en route to the fourth round, Kenin strode onto the Grand Slam stage at the French Open by upsetting Serena Williams to get the round of 16 at a major for the first time.
Gauff’s power is impressive. One tiny indication: She slammed a forehand into the net so hard that it dislodged a piece of a sponsor’s white plastic sign.
Kenin can’t copy that. But thanks to her relentless ball-tracking and a bit of in-your-face attitude with a racket in hand, Kenin surged up the WTA rankings from 52nd to 12th in 2019 while winning her first three tour-level singles titles plus a couple in doubles.
Also on Sunday, defending champion Novak Djokovic moved into a quarterfinal against No. 32 Milos Raonic.
Djokovic defeated No. 14 Diego Schwarzman 6-3, 6-4, 6-4. Raonic beat 2014 US Open champion and 2018 Australian Open runner-up Marin Cilic 6-4, 6-3, 7-5 with the help of 35 aces.
Perhaps just as noteworthy: The Canadian produced 30 more aces than Cilic, a big server himself.
Raonic has 59 holds in a row and won all 12 sets he has played so far en route to his third quarterfinal in Melbourne. He was the runner-up at Wimbledon in 2016, but hasn’t been to a Grand Slam semifinal since while dealing with a series of injuries in recent seasons.
“I haven’t gotten to do this much over the last two years,” Raonic said, “so it means a lot to me.”
He has been overshadowed of late by other, younger Canadians: Bianca Andreescu, who won the US Open last year at 19 but missed the Australian Open with a knee injury; and Denis Shapovalov, 20, and Felix Auger-Alissime, 19, who both were seeded among the top 20 men at Melbourne Park but lost in the first round.