The spatial dynamic of Madison Keys’s 6-1, 6-4 quarterfinal win over Marketa Vondrousova on Wednesday was brutally easy: Keys moved ahead on her phrases, forcing Vondrousova to flail and lunge backward. There was extra to it than pure energy, however Keys’s management over the center of the courtroom by no means wavered. After a five-year absence, she’s again within the U.S. Open semifinals.
Stats alone hardly ever inform the story of a match, however it’s arduous to not gawk on the break level numbers. Vondrousova earned 9 probabilities to interrupt Keys’s serve; she received zero. Keys had three break factors and tidily received every of them. Whenever Vondrousova put her into a good spot, Keys obtained out of it. In the very first recreation, she constructed a 40-love benefit just for Vondrousova to claw out a break level, which Keys saved. Play stopped for eight minutes after a fan passed out, forcing Keys to take a seat within the soupy air and dwell on how her opponent had simply received 4 factors in a row on her serve.
Then she held serve, broke Vondrousova in 4 factors, and received the primary set with out ever wobbling once more. Everything was arduous; every little thing was correct. When Vondrousova could not tempt Keys to the web, factors tended to finish with the Czech sprinting at a ball 10 toes behind her.
Vondrousova was visibly diminished by an elbow damage within the first set, although she appeared to search out her lacking tempo within the second. Her serve lastly began transferring Keys out of place, and each gamers held by way of the primary seven video games till Vondrousova made her transfer. She backed Keys right into a nook at 15-40, which started a match-defining sequence: Keys clobbered an inch-perfect forehand bomb to the nook, then slapped a forehand previous a wayward Vondrousova for deuce; Vondrousova earned the third and fourth break factors of the sport by prolonging exchanges lengthy sufficient to attract Keys towards the web; Keys punched an much more formidable winner right down to the other nook, solely to reward the Czech a fifth break level by duffing a straightforward smash; Keys lastly received one on the web earlier than slamming the door shut with a backhand bullet. Vondrousova poured all her remaining vitality into that recreation, and Keys stood as much as it.
“I think I just find another gear when it comes to Slams,” Keys mentioned after the match. “Part of it is that I put a little bit more pressure on myself, which is a good thing and also a bad thing sometimes.” Mostly, it has been an excellent factor. Keys got here into this event ranked seventeenth, on the heels of a trio of disappointing U.S. Open runs. She’s been loving the lack of press attention, because it has allowed her to keep away from the burden of expectations. Keys appears to be taking part in with actual freedom, fortunately letting that killer serve rip (she hit 119 mph final night time) and punishing opponents with brutal winners. One match earlier than taking down Vondrousova, the defending Wimbledon champion, Keys smoked No. 3 seed Jessica Pegula in 61 minutes. She’s solely dropped one set thus far on the event.
After the match, Rennae Stubbs requested Keys in an on-court interview concerning the recommendation that her coach and fiancée, fellow professional Bjorn Fratangelo, gave her on avoiding Vondrousova’s chipped returns. “To be honest, I couldn’t hear shit out here tonight,” she replied.
The crowd can be even louder on Thursday night time when she takes on Aryna Sabalenka within the semifinals. It’ll be a special form of strain: Due to the matchup, Keys admitted that “it’s going to be a lot of hard hitting, not a lot of long points.” In their final assembly, Sabalenka received in straight units at Wimbledon earlier this summer time, however Keys has been hitting clear in New York. “Bjorn has been wanting me to go after [my serves] more, so he said if I hit a 121 mph serve, I get anything I want,” she joked. If she will get her serve wherever shut, possibly she’ll get one other look within the finals.
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