The Australian Open‘s women’s defending champion Sofia Kenin was sent tumbling out of the 2021 edition of the tournament with a stunning second-round defeat to Kaia Kanepi but the world No 1 Ashleigh Barty made it safely through.
The American won her maiden Grand Slam at last year’s event but hopes of a repeat has been dashed in the second round as she was well beaten 6-3 6-2 by the Estonian.
Kenin was seen shedding tears on court on several occasions since coming out of quarantine in Melbourne and also admitted how she has been struggling to contain her nerves at the prospect of defending the title.
“I felt like I obviously wasn’t there. My head wasn’t there. Obviously I’m not going to take any credit away from her. She played really well at those good points. I had chances. I just couldn’t take it. I obviously know why because the nerves big-time got to me,” admitted Kenin.
“I obviously felt like I’m not there 100 per cent physically, mentally, my game. Everything just feels real off obviously. It’s not good.”
Kanepi, however, was just the sort of hardened veteran who would look to exploit any mental frailties in her opponent.
“I served really well today, I think this helped a lot,” the 35-year-old said.
“My game plan was to play aggressive as I usually do.”
Kai Kanepi’s next opponent in the third round is Croatian Donna Vekic, who beat Argentine Nadia Podoroska in her second-round match on Thursday.
Women’s world number one Ashleigh Barty, however, came out on top of the all-Australian battle with Daria Gavrilova to make it through to the third round.
Barty looked to secure a comfortable win on the Rod Laver Arena as she was serving for the match at 6-1 5-2 before a Gavrilova comeback saw her take the second set to a tiebreak.
But having had the best part of a year off after opting not to travel during the coronavirus pandemic, Barty survived set points to eventually win 6-1 7-6 (9-7). The top seed, who was wearing heavy strapping on her left leg, said there are no concerns.
“It’s just a little bit of support. I played a lot of matches in the last 10 days after not playing for 12 months, which is natural. It’s more of an assistance than anything else,” said Barty.
“It’s not affecting the way that I can play in any way. It’s just more giving the leg some assistance to make sure it doesn’t get to a point where it’s going to affect me.”
This would hurt.
So sad for Sofia