"She was very supportive" - Kenin on teaming with Serena Williams at the Fed Cup Qualifiers
Tennis News
With the Williams sisters approaching the twilight of their careers, there is dire need of a new torchbearer for American women's tennis.
Enter Sofia Kenin, the reigning Australian Open champion. The 21-year old has taken the tennis world by storm, racking up three WTA titles in 2019 and finishing the year as World No.14.
After ending the 2019 season as the WTA's Most Improved Player, Kenin substantiated this award by capturing her maiden Grand Slam title at the 2020 Australian Open. The American proceeded to win her second title at the Lyon Open, and now is now ranked as the World No.4.
Prior to her victory in Lyon, Kenin was selected to represent Team USA at the 2020 Fed Cup Qualifiers. She, along with Serena Williams, were chosen to play the singles rubbers. Kenin ended up going 1-1 in singles action, before teaming with Bethanie Mattek-Sands to win the decisive doubles rubber against Latvia.
During the three-day event, Kenin got to spend some time with Williams. She revealed that playing with Williams as an incredible experience. "I was super excited to be on the team with her." Kenin said in an interview. "I know she’s been at Fed Cup, so I was super excited.
Of course, I was a bit nervous, I didn’t know how it was gonna be, but in the end, she turned out to be very nice."
"We started talking after I lost my match against Ostapenko." Kenin disclosed. "She [Williams] said – Just listen, you just won the Australian Open so it doesn’t matter. She was very supportive and it was funny because I was giving her advice on how to play faster because I just beat her. And then my dad was giving her advice.
And she was taking it. I mean she could have easily just acted like she doesn’t care. She was taking it and she was nice about it after the match."
[embed]https://twitter.com/SofiaKenin/status/1237459686602891265[/embed]
Growing up in a household where soccer was king, my earliest memories are filled with chants from packed stadiums and the rhythm of a ball being passed across neighborhood streets. But somewhere along the way, the quiet elegance and raw emotion of tennis pulled me in. What began as a curiosity became a lifelong passion; not just for the sport itself, but for the stories it tells: of grit, of heartbreak, of improbable comebacks and human resilience.
As a tennis writer, I bring the observational lens of someone who didn’t grow up in the sport, but fell in love with it as an outsider; a perspective that lets me see both its technical beauty and its emotional depth. Over the years working with TennisUpToDate, I’ve had the privilege of reaching more than 3.5 million readers worldwide, with one of my features ranking among the site’s top three articles.
With a background in storytelling and a creative mind always searching for meaning beyond the scoreboard, I aim to craft narratives that go deeper than results and rankings. Whether it’s a rising star breaking through or a veteran fighting off Father Time, I try to capture the heartbeat behind the headlines.
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