Pembroke Pines’ Kenin reaches 1st Grand Slam final
Sofia Kenin enjoys the bright lights and the big city, which is why she aspires to reside in Manhattan one day and perhaps explains why she is thriving on the Grand Slam stage right now.
“Maybe because of ‘Gossip Girl.’ … I love New York. I just love it there,” the 21-year-old American said after stunning top-ranked Ash Barty 7-6 (8-6), 7-5 in Thursday’s semifinal of the Australian Open. “Central Park. All of Fifth Avenue.
All those shops. I’m a fancy girl. I like those shops, living the life.”
Kenin has come along way from honing her strokes across Broward County and in her hometown of Pembroke Pines. The diminutive Russianborn transplant sure is at the center of it all at the Australian Open, where she will face two-time major champion and former No. 1 Garbine Muguruza in the final Saturday.
“I don’t want to be [on] defense against her. She can really put the ball away. She’s really aggressive,” Kenin, the 14th seed, said after winning an error-filled match. “So I feel like it’s going to be who’s controlling the points more, who is dictating. Defense is obviously going to help.”
This will be Kenin’s debut in a Slam title match; she never had been past the fourth round until now. But her gritty style and high tennis IQ carried her past 15-year-old star-in-themaking Coco Gauff of Delray Beach and then the highly favored Aussie, despite fighting off two set points in both sets.
“You don’t experience this so often. Of course,
I’m going to enjoy it. This is so exciting. Literally, butterflies,” said Kenin, whose words tumble out of her mouth as speedily as her legs carry her around a court. “I’m just going to also focus on what I need to do, focus on my game. I got here. It’s time to shine.”
She’s still just as precocious and self-believing as she was at age 7, when she told a TV interviewer in a video clip making the rounds on social media that she could return a serve from 2003 U.S. Open champion Andy Roddick.
“She has the ability to adapt,” said 23-year-old Barty, whose trademark forehand was missing for most of the match. “She has the ability to try different things, control the center of the court. She’s extremely confident at the moment, as well.”
Kenin began 2019 ranked No. 52 and with zero tour-level titles and finished it at No. 12 and with three singles trophies. She thinks her newfound confidence stemmed from a third-round victory over Serena Williams at Roland Garros last May.
“They were cheering for Serena. She’s my idol,” said Kenin, who also had to overcome the partisan Aussie crowd Thursday. “Winning that match really was a lot of emotions.
After that, I felt like it took off. Yeah, things just started falling into place for me.”
The unseeded Muguruza is headed to her fourth Slam title match and is the only woman to beat each Williams sister at that stage, defeating Serena at the French Open in 2016 and Venus at Wimbledon in 2017.
“Doesn’t guarantee anything,” said Muguruza, 26, whose shaky results in the past two years dropped her out of the top 30 in the rankings.
“At the end, the racket has to speak out there. Doesn’t matter how many Grand Slams you have,” said Muguruza, who beat another two-time major champ, Simona Halep, in an exquisitely played semifinal 7-6 (10-8), 7-5. “It’s a tennis match. Even if you have 15 Grand Slams, you go out there and you have somebody that can beat you.”
DJOKOVIC EDGES AILING FEDERER
Defending champion Novak Djokovic on Thursday night defeated ailing 20-time Grand Slam winner Roger Federer 7-6 (7-1), 6-4, 6-3 to claim sole ownership of the all-time record for most Australian Open finals with an eighth appearance.
In an opener filled with action, Federer struck first to take a 2-0 lead. The two Grand Slam champions then exchanged breaks, with the Swiss 38-year-old missing out on three chances for a double break on 4-1 and then faltering as he served for the set at 5-3. The tiebreak was onesided, with Djokovic winning all but one point.
Federer then took a long medical break to address a groin issue that bothered him in his quarterfinal victory over Tennys Sandgren. He never truly threatened after that as Djokovic wrapped up his 27th win over his longtime rival in their 50th career clash and set up a final meeting against either fifth-seeded Dominic Thiem or No. 7 Alexander Zverev on Sunday.
“Respect to Roger for coming out tonight, he was obviously hurt,” Djokovic said. “[He] wasn’t at his best, not even close to his best in terms of movement, and respect for coming out and trying his best all the way through.”
Federer said the possibility of retiring from the match had been discussed. He felt he only had a, “3%’’ chance of winning.
“I did believe there was something that could be done today, and also must have felt like at least it was probably not going to get worse. If it did, this would have been my first retirement today,” Federer said. “You know, got to go for it. You never know. But once you can see it coming, that it’s not going to work anymore, it’s tough.”