Sofia Kenin achieves a great victory over Canadian Leylah Fernandez (6-4, 6-7(6), 6-1) in their duel for the quarterfinals of the WTA 1000 in Guadalajara. The American will be the rival of Trevisan or Dolehide in the semifinals.
Sofia Kenin y Leylah Fernandez They met in the Central Court of the Pan American Tennis Center, in a duel that opened a high-voltage day. The Moscow-born, who was out of the circuit due to injuries, is little by little returning. She started the season outside the Top 200, but with the semifinals in Hobart, the final in San Diego and the third round of Wimbledon, after passing the qualifying phase, she moved up a few places and settled into the top sixty in the world. In her adventure through Mexico, she defeated Carol Zhao, Anhelina Kalinina and Jelena Ostapenko. For her part, the Canadian had bumps since the 2021 US Open final, and she could not recover that level. The only notable thing about her year were the victories over Beatriz Haddad Maia in Montreal, Alizze Cornet in Melbourne and Elise Mertens and Emma Navarro in this same competition.
Kenin goes ahead, Fernandez ties it
The match started with a lit Kenin. In the first game, he hit two winners, pressed on the second serve and found himself with a break opportunity. Without hesitation, he took it and went 1-0. Despite having confirmed with theirs, both made consecutive errors, were unable to back down and gave in twice. In this way, Sofia was ahead on the scoreboard again, but by 3-2. From there, the Canadian focused mainly on her turns and stretched the lead for several minutes. The time came to close it for Kenin and, although it was not easy, he took it 6-4.
In the second, with the need to level the score, Leylah came out and took risks with her forehand, but she was too quick in some points and Kenin did not forgive. However, she joined in, was inconsistent and they gave each side a turn. This was of no use to the Canadian, who changed her plan and saw results. She broke in the sixth, confirmed in the subsequent and went ahead 5-2 in a matter of seconds. Meanwhile, Sofía fought, ran, tried everything and denied him the chance to win the partial with her service. Along the way, she saved two sleeve balls, reversed adverse situations and led everything to a tie-break. The Canadian had the lead before the definition of that tiebreaker, and although Kenin was going to save another two set points, The end would be 8-6 for Leylah to stretch the match towards the third.
Victory for the American
The defining set was going to begin with Kenin serving, already having to save a break point in that first game. Precisely after that moment of risk, the American was going to gain confidence to play it from the return and quickly achieve a break in her favor, and go into the first break with a 3-0 advantage on the scoreboard. A second break for ‘Sonya’ in a game that seemed controlled by Fernandez, began to mark a clear trend in the definition of the match. Solid in service, beyond its rival’s discount in numbers, Kenin was going to sentence his victory with a final 6-1.
2023-09-23 03:47:20
#Kenin #semifinalist #Guadalajara
