Kenin Adds Momentum to her 2021 Roland Garros Journey with W over Pegula

Sofia Kenin is one of America's greatest successors after Serena retires. A grand slam champion (2020 Australian Open Champion) and WTA Player of the Year by the age of 22. Kenin looks to be one of the greatest American tennis players on tour.

Even though she bounced out of the second round of 5 tournaments last year, she was able to secure her Aussie Open title, be a runner-up at Roland Garros and win another WTA title in Lyon. With all of these accomplishments, there are hardships to follow. She split with her coach/father earlier this year as well as her management team.

At this year's French Open, she looks to bounce back on the court: physically and mentally! Today she had a very tough opponent, Jessica Pegula. Pegula has been known to be the next American to have great success on tour. Already a WTA champion, winning her maiden tour title in Washington D.C at the Citi Open. So this was no easy match for either of them.

Going into this match, I thought Pegula had a good chance to win the match. And I was right (well... sort of). Pegula took the first set 6-4 against the World Number 5. Looking strong and confident, Kenin looked like she was about to break down and cry.

(Side Note: Does anyone know why she looks like she might break down whenever she loses a point? It is not a bad thing but it concerns me a little).

Besides that, the real story is in the service games and Winners to Unforced Errors ratio. For serves, nobody was even close to serving their best. Kenin had ten doubles faults, which is essentially giving Pegula 2+ games without even lifting a finger. While Pegula only had 6, she won only 30% of her second serve points... which Kenin definitely took advantage of!

In terms of unforced errors, Kenin was playing hit or miss tennis: 48 winners and 41 unforced. She was really going for everything and she didn't care if she missed it. Pegula had 18 winners to 26 unforced errors which seemed about right to how she was playing.

We look forward to Kenin joining Serena, Sloane, Brady, and Coco Gauff in the following rounds.