By Richard Pagliaro | Wednesday, February 10, 2021
Kaia Kanepi was superb under pressure saving all seven break points she faced in a 6-3, 6-2 sweep of defending Australian Open champion Sofia Kenin.
Photo credit: William West/Getty
It was rush hour on Margaret Court Arena.
Kaia Kanepi drilled three straight aces driving defending champion Sofia Kenin right out of the Australian Open.
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Ripping her groundstrokes with menacing precision, Kanepi was superb under pressure saving all seven break points she faced in a 6-3, 6-2 sweep of Kenin surging into the AO third round for the third time.
The 35-year-old Estonian was explosive and accurate more than doubling Kenin's winner output—22 to 10— and dictating with her whiplash serve to set up first-strike forehands in a masterful 64-minute performance.
Facing a sniper returner, Kanepi slammed 10 aces, won 80 percent of her first-serve points and repeatedly victimized Kenin with the slider serve wide on the deuce side.
"I played good today, I served really good and I think it was a good win," Kanepi said afterward.
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In her first Grand Slam title defense, Kenin conceded pressure provoked tears prior to her first-round win over Aussie wild card Maddison Inglis. Defending a Grand Slam title is one of the toughest tasks in tennis and Kenin clearly felt burdened by the pressure of expectation.
Credit Kenin for her candor in defeat.
"Obviously I haven't experienced that. I obviously felt like I'm not there 100% physically, mentally, my game," said a candid Kenin, who teared up in her post-match presser. "Everything just feels real off obviously. It's not good. I mean, I just, I know I couldn't really handle the pressure.
"I'm not obviously used to this, so right now I just got to figure out how to play at that level that I played at. Because like today and those matches, it just hasn't been there. It's weird. I've been practicing for two weeks. Luckily I've been able to practice. I felt fine in practice. Just couldn't do that in the game."
Kenin couldn't coral her normally crisp groundstrokes against the heavy weight of Kanepi's drives and looked emotionally depleted after falling behind a break in the third game of the second set.
"I felt like I obviously wasn't there," Kenin said. "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, like, the nerves big-time got to me."
The explosive Kanepi has a love of the major stage and showed it again scoring her third career Top 5 win in a Grand Slam, including knocking off world No. 1 Simona Halep at the 2018 US Open. Eight of Kanepi's 13 Top 10 victories have come in Grand Slam play.
A red-hot Kanepi, who scored her 17th win in her last 18 matches, said she didn't detect Kenin's jitters because she was too busy feeling her own nerves.
"I couldn't actually know what she feels because I was nervous too," Kanepi said. "I had to calm myself down and then I had no time to look how the opponent is feeling or doing."
Kenin earned all seven of her break point chances in the early stages of the match, but could not dent the Estonian's serve. Kenin is at her best straddling the baseline, taking the ball on the rise and redirecting the ball down the lines.
The sheer pace of Kanepi's crackling drives combined with quicker court conditions handcuffed Kenin at times as she whacked some wild misses trying to go down the line. Kenin would have been wise to back off the baseline a bit, try to play some sharper angles and deploy her drop shot and some heavier topspin.
Instead, she tried to trade with Kanepi, who snapped Aryna Sabalenka's 15-match winning streak en route to the Gippsland Trophy final at Melbourne Park. The former world 15 played with confidence and control today. Most importantly, Kanepi played to her tempo winning 50 of her 65 points in four shots or less largely denying the defending champion rally rhythm.
Kanepi crunched heavy drives breaking for 3-1.
The defending champion came right back earning triple break point, but Kanepi stood tall erasing all three break points navigating a hard-fought hold for 4-1.
Clad in a plain black sleeveless top and white skirt, Kanepi was completely devoid of sponsor logos. The Estonian branded her aggression serving out the first set at love with a scorching ace out wide.
Beneath break-point pressure, Kanepi refused to bend playing bold erasing all seven break points she faced in the 34-minute opener.
The 2020 WTA Player of the Year took a bathroom break to try to reset. Kanepi was controlling the center of the court and using the faster court speed to handcuff Kenin. Ripping a deep return, Kanepi rattled the American’s racquet rapping a second break for a 2-1 second-set lead.
Kanepi cracked her sixth ace wide backing up the break for 3-1.
On a sweltering day, Kenin just couldn't handle the heat coming at her.
The two-handed backhand is Kenin’'s signature shot—a stroke she used to stun world No. 1 Ashleigh Barty and Garbine Muguruza in succession to win the AO last year—but she scrawled three errors from that wing gifting the break and a 5-2 lead to her veteran opponent.
Kanepi closed in style thundering threes aces in a row The second oldest women in the top half of the draw, Kanepi has endured her share of illness and injury—she slid to a career-low year-end 2016 ranking of No.302 after battling the Epstein-Barr virus and plantar fasciitis in both feet—now she's through to the third round.
A resurgent Kanepi, who has reached quarterfinals at the other three Slams, will play 28th-seeded Donna Vekic for a fourth-round spot.