2020 Australian Open women’s final stats, betting and preview: Sofia Kenin v Garbine Muguruza

Australian Open
Muguruza Kenin Australian Open final

One is playing in her maiden Grand Slam final, the other one is a two-time major winner. Will Sofia Kenin lift her first Grand Slam trophy after Saturday’s Australian Open final or will Garbine Muguruza become a three-time major winner?

We give you all the info you need to know ahead of the 2020 Australian Open women’s final at Melbourne Park.

Sofia Kenin
Age: 21
World ranking: 15
Career-high ranking: 12
Career singles titles: 3
Grand Slam titles:0

Garbine Muguruza
Age: 26
World ranking: 32
Career-high ranking: 1
Career singles titles: 7
Grand Slam titles: 2

Recent form
After winning just one match in her previous two visits to Melbourne Park, the 14th seeded Kenin has been brilliant at this year’s tournament.

World No 1 Ashleigh Barty was Kenin’s biggest scalp as she stunned the two-time Grand Slam winner in the semi-final, winning 7-6 (8-6), 7-5, while she also beat American teen sensation Coco Gauff 6-7 (5-7), 6-3, 6-0.

As for her form coming into the Australian Open, there were no real indicators that she was about to go on a magical run as she lost in the last 16 against Naomi Osaka in Brisbane and also exited the Adelaide International at the same stage.

Being unseeded meant Muguruza had a tougher route to the final, but she made light work of her higher ranked opponents as she upset fifth seed Elina Svitolina 6-1, 6-2, beat ninth seed Kiki Bertens 6-3, 6-3 while fourth seed Simona Halep was dispatched 7-6 (10-8), 7-5 in the semi-final.

Muguruza certainly showed glimpses of finding her best level again in the build-up to Melbourne as she was a semi-finalist in Shenzhen and reached the quarter-final in Hobart.

Head-to-head
The pair has only met once, in the first of the China Open in September 2019, and it was the young American who came out on top of the 6-0, 2-6, 6-2 win.

What they’ve said

Sofia Kenin: First I’m just going to be enjoying the moment. You don’t experience this so often. Of course, I’m going to enjoy it. This is so exciting. Literally butterflies.

I’m just going to also focus on what I need to do, focus on my game. I got here, it’s time to shine, do the best I can… Hopefully do something more special.

Garbine Muguruza: I think [Kenin is] playing great. I think since a while she’s just progressing up in the rankings and in the results. So I think she deserves to be in the final with the tennis she has been showing.

[The last time we played] wasn’t a very good match from my side. I think she played good. It was the first time we played, so it was good to have that match as a reference. I mean, it’s going to be a hard match. It’s the final of a Grand Slam. Doesn’t matter who is your opponent.

Betting
With two Grand Slam trophies already in her bag, it’s no surprise that Muguruza is the favourite with the bookies for the Australian Open betting markets, even if Kenin is the higher-raked player.

The Spaniard is odds-on just about everywhere, with Bet365’s 8/13 for an outright win typical. Kenin, by comparison, can be backed at 11/8.

You may need to get more specific if you want to get favourable odds on a Muguruza win. If you fancy her to win in two sets, then 6/4 odds await, while 3/1 are the typical odds for her to win it in three.

Kein, meanwhile, can be backed at 11/4 to win it in two and 4/1 to take the title on a deciding set.

Conclusion
This is a difficult one to predict as they are certainly two surprise finalists who had dream runs to make it to the showpiece match on Rod Laver Arena.

Muguruza has the experience, having won two of the three Grand Slam finals she has appeared in, while Kenin will bring the youthful exuberance.

Garbine Muguruza roars

However, recent history has taught is not to discount the young guns as Naomi Osaka and Bianca Andreescu have proven that lack of experience in major finals count for nothing.

The first few games are often make-or-break for first-time finalists and Osaka and Andreescu showed that if you can dominate early on then the battle is almost halfway won.

If Kenin can overcome the early nerves and keep the errors down to a minimum, then she might just have the measure of Muguruza.

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Garbine Muguruza Sofia Kenin

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