Kenin into Abu Dhabi round 3 after Flipkens injures ankle

Flipkens won the first set 7-5 and was 5-4 down in the second when she jumped to play a shot and landed heavily on her left ankle, which twisted underneath her.

Australian Open champion Sofia Kenin reached the third round of the Abu Dhabi Open on Friday after her opponent Kirsten Flipkens injured her ankle and had to retire. Flipkens won the first set 7-5 and was 5-4 down in the second when she jumped to play a shot and landed heavily on her left ankle, which twisted underneath her.

File - In this Oct. 10, 2020, file photo, Sofia Kenin, of the United States, plays a shot against Poland's Iga Swiatek in the final match of the French Open tennis tournament at the Roland Garros stadium in Paris, France. Kenin is the top-seeded woman in Abu Dhabi, where the first women’s tour-level tennis event of 2021 begins main-draw play on Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021. (AP Photo/Michel Euler, File) (AP)

Flipkens broke Kenin’s serve five times in the first set, including breaking the American to love in consecutive service games to take the first set after Kenin had served for the set with a 5-4 lead.

Kenin plays either 13th-seeded Yulia Putintseva or Barbora Krejcikova in the third round.

Also, the 15th-seeded Ons Jabeur won 5-7, 6-3, 6-2 against Kateryna Bondarenko in their second-round match. Jabeur, an Australian Open quarterfinalist last year, will play either fourth-seeded Aryna Sabalenka or Ajla Tomljanovic in the third round.