It was in her final year at Harvard that Kennedy decided she would turn professional on completion of her studies in 2020.
But with the Covid-19 pandemic hitting in March that year, the tour was halted.
Having not competed while studying, Kennedy used the year break to her advantage, training to improve aspects of her game so she was ready when tournaments resumed last year.
She became part of the PSA World Tour, which pays male and female competitors equal prize money in its tournaments, with both sets of players competing in the same best-of-five-games format.
Her big break came in June in the Squash on Fire Open in Washington DC, where she entered on a wildcard and beat the top seed and the current world number 14 Joshna Chinappa, and world number 24 Sabrina Sobhy on the way to the final.
Having been ranked 185 in May, she had jumped to the top 80 in August.
Then in her first bronze event on the PSA World Tour in October’s Detroit Pro Classic, she beat the current world number six Joelle King, of New Zealand, 11-9 11-3 6-11 8-11 11-9 as she again reached the final.
Winning the London Open in November was followed by a victory over England’s Sarah-Jane Perry, the world number five, to win the Cleveland Classic in January.
Kennedy then got to her first platinum event quarter-final at the Windy City Open, in Chicago, at the end of last month.
She reached a career high number 10 in February before dropping a place in the March rankings.
“Tournaments are long, by the time you get to finals day it is tough mentally and physically,” Kennedy, who trains at the same club as reigning women’s US Open tennis champion Emma Raducanu in Bromley, said.
“So I definitely wouldn’t have expected to be in the top 10, I’d have wanted to be in the top 50 [by now] and getting into platinum events [the top tier events on the tour].”
“I’ve proved to myself the level I can play at.”