Sofia Kenin secured a victory in the opening round of the Miami Open presented by Itaú, overcoming Petra Kvitova in a match between Grand Slam titleholders on Tuesday. This win sets the stage for a second-round contest against another recent Grand Slam champion.
Kenin, the 2020 Australian Open winner representing the United States, defeated Petra Kvitova from the Czech Republic, a two-time Wimbledon champion and new mother, with scores of 6-4, 7-5 at the WTA 1000 hard-court tournament.
Kenin needed 1 hour and 25 minutes to even her career record against former Miami champion Kvitova to 2-2. Kvitova claimed a victory in Miami back in 2018, but Kenin was successful this time in her home state of Florida.
Gauff awaits: Former World No. 4 Kenin is now set to compete against current World No. 3 Coco Gauff in a highly anticipated all-American second-round match. Kenin and Gauff have an equal record in their four previous encounters on the Hologic WTA Tour.
Several of their matches have been significant in recent tennis history. Their first match saw Kenin come back from a set down to defeat Gauff on her path to winning her Grand Slam title at the Australian Open in the Round of 16 five years ago.
Kenin’s victory over Gauff at Wimbledon in 2023 prompted Gauff to make adjustments to her team and strategy, which contributed to Gauff’s impressive performance in the 2023 summer hard-court season, culminating in a Grand Slam title at the US Open.
In their most recent match, Gauff avenged her Wimbledon defeat by defeating Kenin 6-3, 6-3 in the first round of this year’s Australian Open.
New mom Kvitova seeking a win: Petra Kvitova, a former World No. 2 who won the Miami Open title two years prior by defeating Elena Rybakina, returned to competitive tennis less than a month ago after giving birth to her son Petr last July.
The Czech player is still seeking her first win in three matches since returning from maternity leave. She previously lost to Jodie Burrage in the first round of Austin and to Varvara Gracheva in her opening match at Indian Wells.
Match moments: Kvitova struggled with double faults early in the match, committing five in her initial two service games, and lost an early break advantage as Kenin effectively used drop shots in the first set comeback. Kenin capitalized on her first set point with a drop shot to win the first set after trailing 2-0.
Kenin had her first match point at 5-4 in the second set, but Kvitova managed to save it with a strong serve to hold for 5-5. However, Kvitova could not maintain her defense, and a forehand error in a later game gave Kenin two more match points.
On Kenin’s second match point, Kvitova’s backhand went wide, securing Kenin’s place in the second round. Kvitova hit 13 more winners than Kenin in the match, but she also made 36 unforced errors, twice as many as Kenin’s 18.
