Last year’s Australian Open champion is out of the tournament. (Photo by WILLIAM WEST / AFP via Getty Images)
The Australian Open has its first major upheaval. But it didn’t seem like an annoyance.
Defending champion Sofia Kenin, currently in 4th place in the world ranking, fell in two sets 6-3 and 6-2 on Thursday against Estonian Kaia Kanepi in the second round.
Kanepi was dominant all along, but Kenin simply had no answer for his serve. The 35-year-old finished with 10 aces while earning 80% of first service points; it also had more winners (22-10) and fewer unforced errors (17-22).
It was the second consecutive match in which Kenin left with nothing, needing to recover in the first round against Maddison Inglis, number 130 in the world ranking. Kenin had already admitted the recent fights with the mental side of the game, while saying that a groin injury suffered before the tournament disappeared; whatever the problem, it was clear that it was turned off.
Kanepi, who has won four WTA tournaments in his career and is also known to have beaten Simona Halep at the US Open 2018, will now advance to the third stage, where 28th-placed Donna Vekic is waiting.
The best seed Ash Barty keeps away from fellow countryman
The difficulty increased in the second set, but the main seed Ash Barty is moving on.
WTA No. 1 defeated Australian compatriot Daria Gavrilova 6-1, 7-6 (9-7) to advance to the third round of the tournament, where she will face No. 29, seeded head Ekaterina Alexandrova.
Barty dominated the first set, breaking Gavrilova in all three return games and earning all return points in the second service. She hesitated a little from there, recording 26 unforced errors in the second set, but was victorious in the tiebreaker for victory.
After it was over, Barty’s priority was getting the crowd to sing “Happy Birthday” to interviewer Casey Dellacqua:
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