LONDON: Despite experiencing a decline following her 2020 Grand Slam triumph, Sofia Kenin, the American tennis player, has made a remarkable comeback at Wimbledon. After dropping out of the top 200 last year, Kenin has rediscovered her form and demonstrated her prowess by progressing to the third round, having successfully navigated the qualifiers. Kenin's victory at the Australian Open in 2020, accompanied by a runner-up position at Roland Garros, propelled her to a career-best ranking of number four in the world.

Despite facing injuries, a battle with COVID-19, a challenging period of poor performance resulting in multiple first-round losses, and a temporary separation from her father-coach Alex, followed by a later reunion, Sofia Kenin endured a significant decline in the rankings, dropping to 235. Nevertheless, Kenin has displayed an encouraging resurgence at the All England Club, stunning seventh seed Coco Gauff in the opening round and then convincingly defeating Wang Xinyu in straight sets on Thursday, signaling a potential revitalization of her career.

"Obviously I'm super excited, just trying to prove some people wrong. Just super proud of myself with the way I really fought through to get here and keeping the momentum going," she said after booking a third round match with Elina Svitolina.

"I'm just putting in the hard work and it's paying off ... I didn't have the best results but I felt like this year I started off pretty good overall and I just had to find my way.

"I've been fighting it, just hope that I can keep it going."

According to Kenin, the pivotal moment came during a closely contested match against reigning Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina at Indian Wells earlier this year. In a hard-fought battle, the American emerged victorious with a narrow 7-6(6), 7-6(5) win, which she believes marked a turning point in her journey.

"It was a great match. Of course, a little bit heartbreaking because I lost. But she got to the final of the (2023) Australian Open so I wanted to just see where I am at that point," Kenin said.

"I did a great job, I just got some confidence off that match. I believed I always could do it."

Grass is not her favourite surface but Kenin, 24, said the qualifiers helped her come to terms with it.

"If I know every time I'm going to get to the third round at a slam I'll play qualies (qualifiers)," she said with a smile.

"I felt like I had some really good solid wins in qualies even though they were against tough opponents. I handled my nerves, everything well. Looks obviously easy but it was tough and I feel like those matches definitely gave me confidence."