Sofia Kenin (one of the best players of 2020) left the “WTA 500” tournament in Abu Dhabi already in the first round of qualification, the American sportswoman was defeated in three sets by the British Heather Watson.

Sofia KeninPhoto: Masatoshi Okauchi / Shutterstock Editorial / Profimedia Images

Sofia Kenin was defeated by Heather Watson in the WTA qualifiers in Abu Dhabi

The fourth seed in the UAE qualifiers, Kenin won the first set 6-3 but was unrecognizable in the next legs: 6-1, 6-1 for Watson (139 WTA).

The game lasted one hour and 34 minutes.

Know:

  • Heather Watson will fight for a place in the main draw with the winner of the match between the Iberian Rebecca Masarova (86 WTA) and the Kazakh Yulia Putintseva (70 WTA, 9th number in the qualification).
  • Sorana Kirstea (25 WTA) is directly accepted into the main draw and will face Caroline Garcia (20 WTA) in the first round.

Who is Sofia Kenin?

Sofia’s family history is very interesting: her parents moved from Moscow to New York many years before Sofia was born.

The athlete was born in the capital of Russia, and a few months later the family returned to the United States.

Sofia started playing tennis at the Nick Bollettieri Academy, and her big idol was Maria Sharapova.

During the most important moments of her career (Australian Open 2020 and Roland Garros final of the same year), Sofia was prepared by her father.

The American was the highest in the WTA ranking at 4th place.

The Mubadala Abu Dhabi Open takes place from February 5 to 11 on hard, is part of the WTA 500 category, has a total prize pool of $922,573, and the title champion is Belinda Bencic (2023).

Abu Dhabi: Olena Rybakina (1), Ons Zhaber (2), Maria Sakkari (3), Barbora Krejchikova (4), Yelena Ostapenko (4), Beatrice Haddad Maya (6), Darya Kasatkina (7), Lyudmila Samsonov (8).