At first look, a Grand Slam women’s final between Sofia Kenin – a player ranked outside the top 10 who has never been beyond the fourth round at a major – and world No.32 Garbine Muguruza could be considered as unexpected as they come.
But dive a little deeper, and it begins to make a lot more sense.
The Australian Open 2020 women’s decider pits a two-time Grand Slam champion in Muguruza against one of the game’s most in-form, fastest-rising stars in Kenin.
When Muguruza dropped the first set 0-6 to Shelby Rogers in the first round – still suffering the effects of a virus that forced her to withdraw from Hobart – nobody could have foreseen the progress she would eventually make. After recovering to beat the American and then surviving Ajla Tomljanovic in three, Muguruza switched into “Muguruthless” mode, steamrolling top-10 opponents Elina Svitolina and Kiki Bertens. She beat Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the quarters to set up a semifinal against fourth seed Simona Halep, who she beat for her third top-10 win of the Australian Open fortnight. She has now won nine consecutive sets at Melbourne Park.
While Kenin made slightly under-the-radar progress to the fourth round without the loss of a set, it was at this stage she captured attention with her three-set win over Coco Gauff at Melbourne Arena – ending the 15-year-old’s fairytale AO2020 run. After beating Ons Jabeur in the quarters, she stunned world No.1 Ash Barty at Rod Laver Arena in the semifinals, and as a result became a trending topic on Twitter in Australia.
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