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JMore than eight months ago, former world No. 1 Garbiñe Muguruza reached the Australian Open final favored to crush the humble Sofia Kenin. In the third set, Muguruza finally made her move by running to a 0-40 lead at 2-2 and threatening to rob her of momentum. Instead, Kenin responded with one of the great pressure games of recent times. Against a much stronger opponent, he stood on the baseline and scored five winners in a row from triple break point down. He did not lose another game.
At that time, when people were still unsure of the heights Kenin could hope to reach, it was easy to conclude that his audacity was an anomaly. However, over the past two weeks in Paris, Kenin was pushed into three sets in four of her first five matches and has consistently shown her ability to raise her level under pressure.
Against Petra Kvitova in a tense semi-final, she survived countless tight service games by producing her best tennis when it mattered. Her run at Roland Garros towards a second slam final of the year has underlined that the player with a 2-2 0-40 loss in Australia is exactly who she is.
In a sport where guns are more valued, even now Kenin is still underrated. Very little of what she does is spectacular, but she is a great athlete with one of the best setbacks in the game. She makes up for her lack of power by playing each shot with a purpose, cleverly mixing her punches to keep opponents off balance and playing so well on the scoreboard. While players with similar physical characteristics tend to become passive in the most important moments, Kenin takes control of his destiny.
His rise has surprised many, but there was never any doubt about the talent of Saturday’s opponent, Iga Swiatek. One day she was the No. 1 junior and 2018 Wimbledon women’s champion, the next she was moving up the WTA rankings in lower tier tournaments, she immediately caught the eye as she got used to destroying adult opponents at 16.
What is surprising is the fluidity with which that domain has been translated into the most important stages. Swiatek reached the final losing only 23 games, an achievement that only Serena and Venus Williams have surpassed in the 21st century. The destruction she has caused includes two 6-1, 6-2 knockdowns of seeded Simona Halep and last year’s finalist Marketa Vondrousova in the fourth and first rounds respectively. One of the hardest things in tennis is consolidating a big win once the excitement builds – he’s lost seven games since beating Halep.
Behind Swiatek’s success is a complete attacking package and she has everything you might need: a good all-round serve, a topspin forehand that takes opponents off the court with sharp angles and she is a great athlete. His weaponry is complemented by delicate hands and natural instincts on the court.
The Roland Garros final will mark the first adult meeting between Swiatek, 19, and Kenin, 21, but they know each other quite well. When they met in the third round of the 2016 French Open women’s event, 15-year-old Swiatek was shocked.
While Swiatek is a laid-back introvert, Kenin’s intense intensity on the court is both his driving force and a trait that translates to shrillness to some. They are completely opposite in style of play and nature, but that is what makes the future so exciting. Here they are, like Naomi Osaka, Bianca Andreescu and Ashleigh Barty before them, young players who fearlessly take advantage of their moments on the most important stages of tennis.
