Reigning Champion Sofia Kenin reveals how Jelena Ostapenko has helped her prepare for the Australian Open

The first major of the year, the Australian Open is a few days away and reigning Champion, America’s Sofia Kenin, is under pressure to defend her title. She is presently playing in the  WTA Yarra River Valley Classic, which is more like a preparatory event for the big major coming up in Down Under.

In her post-match interview after her first win, Kenin revealed how hard she and Latvian tennis star Jelena Ostapenko have trained for this major. The World No.4 was with Ostapenko through their time in quarantine and they trained with each other to be ready for the real action in the first Grand Slam of 2021.

Kenin added how she received a message from Ostapenko to be her partner and considering she also did not have one, the duo agreed to train together. The 2017 French Open winner has trained earlier with the American and therefore they decided to pair up again.

“We’ve practiced a few times in the past and I’ve had a really good rhythm with her,” Kenin said.

The long hours of training for two weeks made them realise that the duo are not very different from one another. Kenin added, “I am happy with the way it went,” Sofia continued. “We both have the same character. We are both quite stubborn and get mad at the littlest things. And start not blaming ourselves for missing, but get mad and say ‘yeah the court, the net is.”

The American said that they had fun and got along nicely with one another. “After the two weeks, I had to practice with another player, [Elina] Svitolina, which was a great practice. But, it was different, I was so used to Alona’s space or rhythm,” she laughed.

Both Sofia Kenin and Jelena Ostapenko will hope that the training sessions have helped them improve their gameplay as fans want to see both the tennis stars do well at the Australian Open. Both the youngsters have a lot of potential and will be hoping to live up to the expectations.