{"id":33705,"date":"2021-02-11T06:13:00","date_gmt":"2021-02-11T07:13:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=33705"},"modified":"2021-02-11T08:08:18","modified_gmt":"2021-02-11T08:08:18","slug":"kenin-fights-back-tears-after-stunning-open-exit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=33705","title":{"rendered":"Kenin fights back tears after stunning Open exit"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reigning Australian Open women's champion Sofia Kenin<\/a> has broken down in tears after her stunning second-round exit at the hands of Kaia Kanepi.<\/p>\n

Coming into the match after a scratchy first-round performance by her high standards, Kenin was unable to get her game going, with Kanepi securing a 6-3 6-2 win.<\/p>\n

<\/strong>MORE: <\/strong>Why Sofia Kenin found tennis hiatus tougher than most<\/a><\/p>\n

The 22-year-old admitted the nerves and the expectation of being a defending champion<\/a> got to her, wiping away tears as she spoke to the media after the loss.<\/p>\n

<\/strong>Watch the Australian Open with live streams of every court at 9Now. Click here to start watching!<\/strong><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

"I guess it's the outside pressure," a teary Kenin said.<\/p>\n

\"Sofia<\/p>\n

"I felt really nervous. I haven't felt my game for, like, I don't know how long, but I haven't really felt my game so well, even in my first round.<\/p>\n

"Since last year, like, I won, then obviously I feel like everyone is kind of expecting me to do that. It's obviously tough.<\/p>\n

"Everyone was always asking me, Would you want to? Do you see yourself getting there and winning again? Obviously I said yes, (but) with the way I'm playing, no."<\/p>\n

When asked about what was so different between last year's improbable run to a title compared to this year's second-round exit, Kenin said it was her own expectations that doomed her.<\/p>\n

\"Sofia<\/p>\n

"I just came here, I didn't have really any expectations," she said.<\/p>\n

"I obviously wanted to do well. I knew I was playing well. I started having a good run and everything. It's not like I was ranked a hundred and all of a sudden I won. <\/p>\n

"I mean, I was like there, top 20 or something. I don't even remember. Yeah, I just didn't put this much pressure on myself as this year. <\/p>\n

"This year I put a lot of pressure (on myself). I obviously felt like I was expected to do well. Obviously didn't, so…That's the difference for me."<\/p>\n

<\/em><\/strong>For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by clicking here!<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reigning Australian Open women's champion Sofia Kenin has broken down in tears after her stunning second-round exit at the hands of Kaia Kanepi. Coming into […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33705"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=33705"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33705\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33707,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33705\/revisions\/33707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=33705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=33705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=33705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}