Tough night for hometown favorite Sofia Kenin

MIAMI GARDENS – Sofia Kenin grew up about a lob away from Hard Rock Stadium in Pembroke Pines, but has never gotten past the third round in the Miami Open, her hometown tournament.

Coco Gauff, another hometown favorite from Delray Beach, ranked fourth in the world, has never gotten past the fourth round. Last year, Gauff defeated Kenin, but then lost to Poland’s 33-year-old Magda Linette, then ranked No. 34.

Now 27, Kenin won the Australian Open in 2020, taking out No. 1 Ash Barty in the semis, and later that year reached the final of the French Open, falling to a young Iga Swiatek. She was ranked a career-high No. 4 that year, but injuries and personal issues have dropped her to No. 46.

But this year, on a chilly, breezy evening on Butch Buchholz court, Kenin’s hometown jinx continued in a 3-6, 6-1, 6-3, loss to Russian Anna Blinkova. Kenin fell to 1-8 this year.

Could it be the distraction of friends and family?

“I don’t know,’’ said Gauff, 22, who said the nerve issue in her right arm that forced her to retire in her third-round match with Alexandra Eala at Indian Wells, is good to go after the MRI revealed no damage.

“I would love to do well here. It seems like every time I do bad here, I end up doing well on the clay, which I can’t get too mad, but this is obviously a bucket-list tournament for me. I do stay at home, but I’ve also played this tournament in the past where I’ve stayed in a hotel, and neither has been better.

“I prefer to stay home, but I don’t know, but maybe this year is the year.”

Gauff will play the winner of lucky loser Darja Semenistaja of Latvia and Elisabetta Cocciaretto of Italy. Dangerous floater Maria Sakkari of Greece could be Gauff’s third-round opponent. Sakkari lost to Gauff here last year.

Gauff could potentially run into sixth-seed Amanda Anisimova, a two-time Grand Slam finalist last year, and yet another woman who grew up in South Florida. Anisimova, now a Miami Beach resident, has never gotten past the fourth round in seven Miami appearances.

“I feel like I started my pro career here,’’ said Anisimova, 24, whose first main-draw Tour level match came in the 2017 Miami Open as a wild-card entrant in which she lost to Taylor Townsend. “I feel really at home here. I always have a lot of friends and family come out to support me…. A lot of special memories and lots of experiences.

“I would go to Crandon Park when I was a kid and absolutely loved it. It was one of my favorite times of the year to go to the Miami Open. I was asked recently if I was ever a ball kid and I wanted to be one so bad, but what I remember is there was a lot of training that went into it. And I passed.”

Anisimova will have a tough test in the first round in Ajla Tomljanovic of Australia, who grew up training at Evert Tennis Academy in Boca Raton. Tomljanovic reached the Wimbledon quarterfinals in 2021 and ’22.

In other matches, No. 83 Zeynep Sonmez, the first woman from Turkey to compete in the Miami Open main draw, ran down everything from former Top 10 player, now No. 69 Beatriz Haddad Maia of Brazil, and won 6-3, 6-2. Haddad Maia has won four titles and reached the semifinals of Roland Garros in 2023.

“Brazilian fans and Turkish fans, it was a very fun match,’’ Sonmez, 23, said on Tennis Channel. “It was a pleasure to share the court with her.”

Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka certainly wasn’t affected by any hometown jinx last year as the Miami resident won her first Miami Open title.

McCartney Kessler of Tennessee, a two-tournament winner last year, edged Poland’s Magdalena Frech, 2-6, 6-4, 6-2. Romanian Sorana Cirstea got past Shuai Zhang of China, 6-3, 6-4.

Gibson comes out of qualies

Talia Gibson, who enjoyed a Jakub Mensik-like breakthrough at Indian Wells last week, continued her dream month by powering  through qualifying and into the Miami Open, for her first 1000 main draw.

From qualies, Gibson, 21, reached the quarterfinals at Indian Wells last week to improve her ranking from No. 112 to 68. She had been 0-9 against Top 50 players, before knocking off four in a row in the California desert: No. 41 Ann Li, No. 11 Ekaterina Alexandrova, No. 17 Clara Tauson and No. 7 Jasmine Paolini, her first Top 10 notch.

On a breezy, cool Tuesday morning in Miami, Gibson needed a basket of match points to finish off Uzbekistan’s Kamilla Rakhimova, 6-3, 6-4.

“It’s been absolutely amazing, especially for my confidence,’’ Gibson said. “I think going into that tournament last week, I didn’t really have any expectations, how I was going to do. Getting through qualifying in the first place, I was already super proud of that because that was something I hadn’t achieved before, qualifying for a 1000 [event] for the first time.

“So, from those matches continuing after that I was just super proud of the tennis that I was able to produce and the level that I was able to hold throughout the rest of the tournament. I think I absolutely can take so many positives from that week and moving into this one. I knew it was definitely going to be a bit of a challenge, mentally and physically, especially with just how much tennis I’ve played over the last couple weeks.’’

Gibson also drew confidence from playing four-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka close in a first-round match at Wimbledon last July, losing 6-4, 7-6 (4).

“Playing such an amazing champion was really exciting for me to see how well I was able to compete with her,’’ she said.

Tuesday was a rough day for established stars on the comeback trail as often-injured Canadian Bianca Andreescu, the 2019 US Open champion once ranked No. 4, fell 7-5, 6-2 to Californian Katie Volynets in the final round of qualifying.

Volynets joins 11 other players who qualified into the main 128-draw. Also departing Miami early is Croatia’s Donna Vekic, who was ranked a career-high No. 17 a year ago and a silver medalist in the 2024 Paris Olympics. She was dispatched 6-3, 6-3 by New Zealander Lulu Sun.

Former junior standout Czechian Linda Fruhvirtova, 20, who reached the third round here last year as a qualifier and the fourth round in 2022, is in. Fruhvirtova, who reached a career-high N. 49 ranking in 2023, won her lone title at Chennai in 2022.

Three former Miami champs on tap Wednesday

Three-time Miami Open champion and seven-time Grand Slam champion Venus Williams, 45, is the featured evening match (7 p.m.) against Great Britain’s Francesca Jones, who’s 20 years younger.

Williams and Sloane Stephens were granted wild cards. Stephens, a South Florida native who won the 2014 Miami Open and the 2017 US Open, will play at noon against American wild card Jen Brady, who’s coming off a couple of injury-plagued years.

On the men’s side, 2021 Miami Open champion Hubert Hurkacz of Poland will take on young American Ethan Quinn.

Men’s qualifying complete

In men’s qualifying, top seed Ignacio Buse downed Hong Kong’s Coleman Wong, who made history here last year when he became the first man from his country to earn an ATP Masters win before shocking then No. 14 Ben Shelton in the second round.

Joining Buse of Peru in the main draw is Aussie Adam Walton, who went from qualies to the fourth round here last year before Taylor Fritz ended his best Masters 100 run.