Pembroke Pines’ Sofia Kenin‘s breakout year continued over the weekend at the China Open in Beijing where the 20-year-old captured her second WTA title of 2019.
Teaming with fellow American Bethanie Mattek-Sands as a wild card entry, they navigated the field to the final where they defeated Jelena Ostapenko and Dayana Yastremska 6-3, 6-7(5), 10-7 for the championship.
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“We got in as a wildcard team last minute,” Mattek-Sands said afterwards. “But Kenin’s a feisty one. This girl’s running down shots, is not afraid to be at the net, closing volley out. There were a couple of matches where we were down, had to come back…there’s very few people that match my energy on court. This kid’s one of them”
Ostapenko-Yastremska won the second-set tiebreak to force a third-set super-breaker, where Kenin served out match point at 9-6.
6-3, 6-7(5), 10-7 ✔
In their team debut, Sofia Kenin and Bethanie Mattek-Sands take home the doubles 🏆 in Beijing!#TeamUSATennis | @SofiaKenin | @matteksands pic.twitter.com/osGRYjnHqi
— USTA (@usta) October 6, 2019
“With doubles, anything can change,” said Kenin, who won her first career WTA title in January in doubles with Genie Bouchard of Canada. “We just went for it, and tried to play aggressive.”
Kenin now has two doubles titles and three singles titles under her belt — all coming in 2019. In singles this year she lifted trophies at Hobart, Mallorca and Guangzhou, and finished runner-up at Acapulco.
.@matteksands and @SofiaKenin raising that @chinaopen doubles trophy high! 🏆🙌 –> https://t.co/9xTjvDaebE pic.twitter.com/EVGjKPiDx0
— wta (@WTA) October 6, 2019
She currently sits at a career-high No. 15 in singles and No. 43 in doubles on the WTA rankings.
For the 34-year-old Mattek-Sands it was her first WTA doubles title of the year after winning the US Open mixed doubles title with Andy Murray. She improved to 27-13 career in WTA doubles finals.
For more info go to www.wtatennis.com.
