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By Giri Nathan
[vc_empty_space height="15px"]The last time Sofia Kenin beat a top 10 player, she was en route to winning the Australian Open. That was 2020. Later that year she was the runner-up at Roland-Garros. For anyone invested in her success, that must all feel prehistoric by now. Now 24, the child prodigy–turned–major champ had been hurt and/or adrift for two whole seasons. After falling outside the top 300, Kenin has recently worked her way back up to world No. 134 but is very much a work in progress. (Just the other day in Madrid she got nixed first-round by world No. 75 Maryna Zanevska in less than an hour.) Generally a rebuilding player like her would be a quick snack for Aryna Sabalenka, the world No. 2, fresh off a loud Madrid title win over world No. 1 Iga Swiatek. But Kenin approached their second-round matchup in Rome on Thursday as if rankings did not exist, as if it were just one AO champ meeting another on equal footing. And a spectacular, vintage Kenin dispatched Sabalenka 7–6(4), 6–2.