Sofia Kenin on comeback trail at Wimbledon trying 'to prove some people wrong'

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Sofia Kenin of the US returns to China's Wang Xinyu in a women's singles match on day four of the Wimbledon tennis championships in London, Thursday, July 6, 2023. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

WIMBLEDON ā€“ Sofia Kenin reached the third round at Wimbledon for the first time on Thursday. Or as the 2020 Australian Open champion put it: ā€œJust trying to prove some people wrong.ā€

Kenin beat Wang Xinyu of China 6-4, 6-3 to back up her victory over seventh-seeded Coco Gauff that ended a streak of three straight first-round exits at Grand Slam tournaments.

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The 24-year-old American came into Wimbledon ranked 128th and had to go through qualifying to reach the main draw ā€” and she's fine with that.

ā€œIf I know every time Iā€™m going to get to the third round at a Slam, Iā€™ll play qualies,ā€ said Kenin, who was ranked No. 4 after her title at Melbourne Park. ā€œYeah, definitely I feel like that for sure helped me. Grass wasnā€™t always my favorite surface, and I felt like I had some really good solid wins in qualies even though they were against tough opponents.

ā€œLooks obviously easy, but it was tough and I feel like those matches definitely gave me confidence.ā€

Kenin's win on Court 4 wasn't a work of art ā€” she hit 11 winners to 17 unforced errors ā€” but she jumped on Wang's second serve and broke her four times.

The Russian-born Kenin next faces Elina Svitolina, a Ukrainian who is making a comeback of her own. Svitolina is back on tour after the birth of her first child in October. She beat five-time Wimbledon champion Venus Williams in the first round.

Kenin, who has dealt with a foot and ankle injuries, said she'll prepare for ā€œa long, tough match" because Svitolina ā€œgets a lot of balls back, from what I remember.ā€

Svitolina followed up her win over Williams by eliminating 28th-seeded Elise Mertens 6-1, 1-6, 6-1.

The Ukrainian, who is ranked 76th, remembers Kenin as aggressive baseliner.

ā€œShe loves to strike the ball, dictate on the baseline. Iā€™ll have to react quick. Iā€™ll have to move my legs really, really well and expect a quick ball,ā€ Svitolina said.

Regarding proving people wrong, Kenin didnā€™t point to anyone specific.

ā€œItā€™s just like I didnā€™t have maybe the best results, but I felt like this year, you know, I started off pretty good overall and I just had to find my way,ā€ she said. ā€œI have been fighting it. Yeah, just hope that I can keep it going.ā€

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AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports


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