Wimbledon 2023: Former World No.4 Sofia Kenin was over the moon after she handed World No.7 CoCo Gauff a shock defeat in the first round match of the women’s singles in Wimbledon 2023. On Monday, July 3, the 24-year-old won the match 6-4, 4-6, 6-2 in an hour and three minutes.
Currently ranked World No.128, Kenin had to fight her way through the qualifiers before she met Gauff in the first round. The youngster said that 2023 has been a “comeback year” for her and sounded happy with her progress of late.
“This means a lot. I feel like this year has been not necessarily lows, but I feel like it’s a comeback year for me. I feel like I started off the year well, I was playing well. I had a good feeling that this year would be a good year for me,” Kenin was quoted as saying.
Kenin earned a break of serve to take the first set from Gauff. The latter was equal to the task as she returned the favour in the second set. With the match on a knife edge, Kenin put her best foot forward in the third set by breaking Gauff’s serve twice.
Kenin, also a 2020 Australian Open champion, was also helped by the fact that Gauff made as many as 33 unforced errors. It also happened to be her second victory over Gauff after she won the Australian Open 2020 Round of 16 match 6-7, 6-3, 6-0.
Kenin, who has never gone beyond the second round of Wimbledon, is next set to lock horns with China’s Wang Xinyu in the second round on Wednesday, July 5.
