"Now I'm just eager and hungry to get back" - Sofia Kenin after Wimbledon 1R victory over Coco Gauff

Sofia Kenin has opened up about her journey through the qualifiers after pulling off an upset over Coco Gauff at the 2023 Wimbledon Championships.

Kenin, currently ranked No. 128, scored a sensational victory over compatriot and seventh seed Gauff in the opening round of the grasscourt Major on Monday, July 3.

The all-American clash was a high-octane battle, abound with taxing rallies. Despite her best efforts, Gauff came up short against the former Grand Slam champion, who won 6-4, 4-6, 6-2, after just over two hours of play.

The 2020 Australian Open champion and French Open runner-up, Kenin, was hardly the favorite to win the match-up. Having experienced a poor run of form in the past couple of years, the 24-year-old had to fight through the qualifiers to secure a spot in the Wimbledon main draw.

After defeating Gauff, Sofia Kenin shared her feelings about needing to contest the qualifying rounds despite being a former Grand Slam champion.

“It's never the ideal position for me because I know where I was and where I should be,” she said in her post-match press conference.

The former World No. 4, however, conveyed that she put the circumstances behind her, so as to focus on her match with her fellow American.

“If I would look at that coming into quallies, I definitely would not be sitting here. I had to put that aside. I know everyone is really tough in quallies. Everyone who is there is playing well and fighting for a spot in the main draw. I just had to push through, battle out. Now I'm where I am right now, and I'm happy,” she said.

Kenin added that she was ‘eager and hungry’ to get back to her top form. The 24-year-old, who scored her first Grand Slam victory since her second-round exit at Wimbledon 2021, stated that she will be taking one day at a time this time around.

“Definitely, once I passed the quallies, now I'm just eager and hungry to get back,” she said. “Just going to take it day by day, match by match, try not to overthink things, just do everything in my control.”

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"I knew she'd be a bit more nervous" – Sofia Kenin on Coco Gauff after Wimbledon 1R victory

Sofia Kenin was the 2020 Australian Open champion

Sofia Kenin said that reaching the second round of the Wimbledon Championships after defeating a player of the caliber of Coco Gauff was a confidence boost for her. She expressed her desire to prove her critics wrong by scoring such victories.

“It gives me a boost to try to prove them wrong,” Kenin said in her post-match press conference.

She, however, noted that Gauff was struggling with the pressure of being the favorite coming into the match – a situation Kenin knows all too well. The 24-year-old indicated that she took advantage of the teenager’s nerves.

“When I was higher ranked and everything, people looked at me like I should win. I try to use that as, like, a way of -- I knew she'd be a bit more, like, nervous because more pressure's on her than me. I just tried to use everything I could this match to my advantage,” she said.

Sofia Kenin, who is in quest of her second Grand Slam title at Wimbledon, will face China’s Xinyu Wang in the second round on Wednesday, July 5.