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January 18, 2022,
The top two WTA ranked American seeds are out.
In the first round.
The irony is that it doesn’t come as a major surprise given how Coco Gauff has been inconsistent and how Sofia Kenin just happened to draw a blazing hot Madison Keys.
At 17 and 23, the young women are still in the early stages of their careers and Sofia has previously broken through and won the 2020 Australian Open.
The expectations have been extremely high for Coco, who has yet to win a Grand Slam, after breaking through with previous great results, competing into the fourth round at Wimbledon in 2019 and 2021 along with the Australian Open in 2020 where she eventually lost to Sofia.
They both would love those results now.
As reported today on Channel News Asia channelnewsasia.com, “American 18th seed Coco Gauff was dumped out of the Australian Open first round on Monday in a blaze of unforced errors, losing 6-4, 6-2 to China’s Wang Qiang in a huge upset. She was comprehensively beaten by Wang for the first time in three meetings between the pair, melting down to make 38 unforced errors.”
These have been challenging times for Coco and it appears it is time to regroup but not over think what has brought her sensational success so early.
With Sofia, the news is not alarming, but concerning and from our view, at least in one area, very solvable.
As reported by the global news team at hindustantimes.com, “American Madison Keys relied on her big serve on key points to beat 2020 Australian Open champion Sofia Kenin 7-6(2) 7-5 on John Cain Arena on Monday and reach the second round of the year’s first Grand Slam.”
What concern for Sofia is solvable?
In watching the match, we couldn’t help but notice that Sofia has gained a considerable amount of weight compared to her physical form in 2020. She seemed just a touch slower in running down Madison’s balls.
At this high level of play, that may be all that it takes to be edged out.
We sense Sofia is aware of that as well and if so, hopefully will make a decision to work on an issue that appears to be completely within her control.
She truly needs to. This first round loss may have massive consequences to her rankings.
As analyzed at essentiallysports.com, “As a result of a poor 2021, she finished last season as the World No. 12. Currently, things have gone from bad to worse for the American player as she crashed out in the first round of the Australian Open 2022. Due to that, she will now drop out of the top 90, which is a huge blow. From being the World No. 4 to being ranked outside the top 90 is a massive disappointment.”
That is shocking. If that is the case, it could be a long climb back towards the top.
Of the Americans left in the draw, there are questions and an intriguing matchup.
Currently ranked at 22, is Jessica Pegula finally ready to make a move into the top tier of women’s tennis?
Here is what Femcompetitor Magazine earlier surmised, “As of this August 16, 2019 writing, Jessica is ranked number 56 in the world. That is an all-time high. She truly is ascending. When you look at her professional tennis history, which began in 2009, it is intriguing that it took her ten years to crack the top 100.
In 2012 she rose to 147, only to see her rankings keep sliding until she was lodged at 632 in 2017.
Injuries have played a role in that but all professional tennis players have injuries and they seem to fight through them and when their window opens, make their move anyway.
For a long time, Jessica seemed not to.
Recently Jessica began working with David Witt, Venus Williams’ former coach. Now that could make a very big difference.
She’s expressed that he helped her realize to compete for every single point and not really take off any points or games for that matter. She needs to keep that mindset all of the time.”
Femcompetitor researched that Jessica is also involved in owning and running an eatery that focuses on making healthy food choices. Can she really keep a 100 percent focus on tennis with so much going on away from it?
We have watched Jessica with keen interest.
She’s the daughter of Buffalo Bills’ owner Terry Pegula who is a natural gas tycoon as well.
Jessica is also the daughter of Kim Pegula whose resume includes being the President of Pegula Sports and Entertainment, which is the holding company that manages the Bills as well as the Buffalo Sabres of the National Hockey League, Buffalo Bandits and Rochester Knighthawks of the National Lacrosse League, Rochester Americans of the American Hockey League, HarborCenter and Black River Entertainment, an independent record label based in Nashville, Tennessee.
With that resume and foundation, we wondered about her motivation.
In watching her recent loss at the 2021 US Open, in the third round to Belinda Bencic, 2-6, 4-6, she just didn’t appear to have the all-around game and fire power to compete.
It didn’t seem to be about a lack of focus or motivation. It was completely about skill or, comparatively speaking, the lack there of.
We sense this is a huge tournament for Jessica and it will be fascinating to watch her results Down Under.
In terms of the other powerful American to watch, Sloane Stephens has drawn a major obstacle right in the first round.
Again.
At the 2021 US Open it was Madison Keys in the first round, which she survived, and here it is the 2021 US Open champion in Emma Raducanu.
Those tough first round draws are the price you pay for not keeping your rankings up.
Currently Sloane is ranked number 68 in the world.
After a fairytale 2021 US Open, Emma has apparently come down to earth.
The team at sportskeeda.com shares, “The 19-year-old had a fairytale run in New York last September, becoming the first qualifier to taste Slam glory in the Open Era. However, the British teenager hasn’t managed to live up to the expectations on the court since her US Open triumph. In four tournaments, the World No. 18 has reached a solitary quarterfinal while losing her opening match in the other three.”
That being the case, the odds appear to be in favor of the very savvy and at times extremely dangerous Sloane Stephens, just as Coco found out at the 2021 Open.
Sloane tends to be very tough on younger players who lack similar experience.
Oddly enough, it appears to inspire her. She can be very inconsistent though. We’ll see which Sloane shows up.
At the 2022 Australian Open, fortunately the sky isn’t falling, just so far, the two highest ranked Americans.
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OPENING PHOTO Femcompetitor.com, grapplingstars.com, fciwomenswrestling.com, fcielitecompetitor.com Editorial-credit-Janet-McIntyre-Shutterstock.com
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/sport/error-strewn-gauff-stunned-chinas-wang-australian-open-2440536
https://www.fcielitecompetitor.com/
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