SOFIA KENIN fulfilled her child prodigy promise to become the youngest women’s Australian Open winner since her idol Maria Sharapova 12 years ago.
The 21-year-old American came from behind to beat the error-prone Garbine Muguruza 4-6 6-2 6-2 in the womens singles final.
Ever since she was a kid, there has been an element of expectation and hope she would one day scale one of the peaks in tennis.
Several cute videos have emerged in recent days of her meeting Kim Clijsters and even cheekily claiming at the age of seven she could return the serve of Andy Roddick, known as one of the sports fastest servers.
And in emphatic style, the Moscow-born star, who relocated to the US a few months after her birth, has now emulated her hero Sharapova by becoming a Grand Slam champion.
Russian Sharapova won the 2004 Wimbledon title aged 17 and the watching Kenin says that moment encouraged her to pursue a life of tennis.
Now she has her hands on a tennis major, which will propel her into the top ten and give her confidence she can go on and dominant.
The newly-crowned champion said: “The newly-crowned champion said: This is my first speech but I will try my best. I want to congrats Garbine on a great two weeks. We will have many more finals to come.
“My dream has officially come true. I cannot describe this feeling. This is so emotional.
“I am grateful to be standing here. Dreams do come true if you have one, go for it and it will come true.
“I love this tournament. I am looking forward to coming back next year. These past two weeks have been the best two weeks of my life.”
The roof was closed because of the Melbourne rain and there were pockets of empty seats on the Rod Laver Arena.
That was probably explained by the absence of home favourite Ash Barty, who was defeated in the semi-finals by Kenin.
It was a combative opening to this final with the first three games taking 15 minutes to complete.
The more experienced Muguruza went back to her chair with the early break at 2-1 up and seemingly in control of this match against the diminutive Kenin.
Curiously she has this ability to swing from the sublime to the ridiculous quite frequently in matches.
Muguruza surrendered that break advantage with two sloppy successive double faults in the eighth game.
And yet just when Kenin thought she might make some inroads, Muguruza broke back again and then served out the first set.
However, to illustrate again how topsy-turvy her form can be, Muguruza never recovered in the second set after losing her way with two key backhand errors.
Kenin started to get agitated in the third set, screaming to her box for inspiration and guidance.
When she fell 0-40 down in the fifth game, it appeared as if Muguruza would take control of this match.
And yet Kenin responded stunningly, hitting four winners and one ace to hold her serve.
In the next game, Kenin crucially broke, aided by yet another Muguruza double fault.
And incredibly she won the title when Muguruza doubled once again – for the eighth time – crowning Kenin the youngest American to win a Grand Slam since Andy Roddick at the 2003 US Open.
- The Suns coverage of the Australian Open is brought to you in partnership with Betway.
