Miami Open Match Preview
They’re both from Florida, they’ve both won a major title, and their matches tend to lead to life-changing events.
At the Australian Open in 2020, Kenin, whose father wasn’t happy with the attention that the teenage Gauff was getting, beat Coco in three sets and went on to win her lone Slam.
At Wimbledon in 2023, Kenin won their first-round match, again in three sets. A distraught Gauff fired her dad as her coach, hired Brad Gilbert, and won her lone Slam at the US Open two months later.
Their most recent encounter, in the first round at this year’s Australian Open, wasn’t quite as significant or surprising. It resulted in a 6-3, 6-3 win for Gauff. Looking at their rankings—No. 3 for Gauff vs. No. 46 for Kenin—you might expect something similar when they meet on Thursday afternoon.
Since January, though, the gap between them has narrowed. Kenin has been improving in fits and starts for some time now, and she had a surge last month in Dubai, where she beat three higher-ranked players, Vekic, Kostyuk, and Paolini, in succession. Gauff, meanwhile, is just 2-3 over the past six weeks, and her serve and forehand have gone wonky again.
Look for this to be a tougher test for Coco, and a match she really isn’t going to want to lose. Winner: Gauff—Steve Tignor
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