| Advertisement |
July 1 (UPI) -- Tennis star Sofia Kenin suffered a second-round upset to fellow American Madison Brengle at Wimbledon 2021. After the match, Kenin told reporters she also decided not to participate in the Tokyo Olympics. Brengle beat the No. 6 player in the WTA Rankings 6-2, 6-4 on Wednesday at the All England Club in London. The match lasted for just 45 minutes. Kenin won 3 of 3 break points and fired 20 winners, but totaled 41 unforced errors in the loss.
Advertisement
"I really did not feel my game," Kenin told reporters. "Of course, she played well.
"She's playing well, obviously. I just feel like leading up to Wimbledon I didn't have enough clearly preparation on the grass."
Brengle totaled just seven unforced errors to advance to a third round match against Switzerland's Viktorija Golubic. Golubic beat American Danielle Collins to advance.
Madison Keys, Sloane Stephens and CoCo Vandeweghe joined Brengle as the American women who advanced out of the second round Wednesday in London. Jessica Pegula, Venus Williams, Amanda Anisimova, Claire Liu, Lauren Davis and Kristie Ahn joined Kenin and Collins as the Americans to exit through Wednesday's second round.
Frances Tiafoe, Sebastian Korda, Steve Johnson, Denis Kudla, Taylor Fritz, Sam Querrey and Marcos Giron were among the American men to advance Wednesday. Americans John Isner and Brandon Nakashima lost their Wednesday matchups.
No. 1 Novak Djokovic of Serbia, No. 7 Andrey Rublev of Russia, No. 9 Matteo Berrettini of Italy, No. 11 Diego Schwartzman of Argentina and No. 12 Denis Shapovalov of Canada were among the top men to advance Wednesday.
No. 4 Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus, No. 5 Elina Svitolina of the Ukraine, No. 9 Iga Swiatek of Poland, No. 12 Garbine Muguruza of Spain, No. 13 Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic were the top women to advance.
Kenin and No. 11 Belinda Bencic of Switzerland were among the top players to exit through Wednesday upsets.
Kenin, who said in February that she intended to compete in the Summer Games, opted out of participation in her post-match news conference.
She cited a rule, which bars foreign spectators from attending the Summer Games, when she explained her reason for the opt out.
"Yeah, I'm not playing the Olympics," Kenin told reporters. "Yeah, that was a difficult decision, but I spoke and discussed that with my agents.
"I couldn't take anyone with me, and I definitely wanted to have someone. Of course I love the Olympics. It was a tough one, like I said."
Kenin is the highest-ranked American -- man or woman -- among singles circuit players. No. 8 Serena Williams, who departed Wimbledon early due to a leg injury, also said she won't compete in the Summer Games.
Teen phenom Cori "Coco" Gauff, 17, is expected to lead Team USA's women's tennis squad this summer in Tokyo, along with Jennifer Brady. Americans Tommy Paul and Tennys Sandgren are expected to join Tiafoe and Giron on the men's team at the Summer Games.
