By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Friday July 7, 2023
It’s like clockwork. At nearly every Grand Slam she plays, Madison Keys puts her best foot forward and puts herself in a position to make a deep run.
The American has reached the second week in 18 of her first 40 majors – an impressive 45 percent strike rate that most players on tour would kill to have – and she’s in that position again at Wimbledon after her 7-5, 6-3 victory over Viktorija Golubic of Switzerland.
Keys, who improved to 95-40 lifetime at the Slams, will face Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk in the third round on Saturday.
Wins like Friday’s are so routine for the former World No.7 that she didn’t even realize that she had just won her 350th WTA match.
“Haven't been keeping tally,” she told reporters, when asked about it.
Understandable: i’s been a long ride for Keys, now 28 years of age. She’s been on tour for half of her life.
“I have been playing tennis since I was four, so quite literally been playing it for almost my whole life,” she said. “I have been on the tour since I was 14. I mean, I feel like I have played through a few different eras now, the tail end of some people, middle of other people, and then the start of others.”
Fresh off her third career title on grass at Eastbourne two weeks ago, Keys stretched her winning streak to seven on the grass. The No.25 seed may not be in most pundits' short list of players who could significantly outperform her seed and make a run to the semis or even deeper, but she probably should be.
Keys improved to 42-13 on grass and 20-8 at Wimbledon with her win.
The 2015 quarterfinalist is hoping to reach the semifinals at Wimbledon for the first time on a surface that clearly suits her booming, first-strike power game. She's also making up for lost time, as she was forced to pull out of the Championships in 2022, due to injury.
“From the start, it just felt really natural,” she says of her initial forays on grass. “I feel like on clay it kind of took a little while of figuring out what small adjustments to make in my game to make my game better on the surface versus on grass.
“It just has always felt really easy and natural and it just immediately clicked.”
Keys is in a nice section of the draw, and will face either Anastasia Potapova or Mirra Andreeva if she can get past Kostyuk. After that Aryna Sabalenka, the No.2 seed, looms as a potential quarterfinal opponent.
But it’s too far ahead for Keys to be looking. This is not her first rodeo, she knows the drill.
“I'm just really not even trying to think that far ahead,” she said. “I have a match most likely tomorrow, and that's all I'm going to worry about for right now.”