By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Wednesday September 6, 2023
Madison Keys continued her torrid tennis with a straight sets takedown of Marketa Vondrousova on Wednesday night at the US Open.
Photo Source: Getty
By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Wednesday September 6, 2023
When Madison Keys revs up her world-class ground game, the American can give headaches to any player on tour.
2023 Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova joined that club on Wednesday night as she was handed a one-sided 6-1 6-4 defeat by the 28-year-old powerhouse.
Keys won all nine of her service games as she moved through in 86 minutes to book her sixth career semifinal and third at the US Open.
The American contributed her recent success to being more even keel in her overall preparations.
“I think I have had just really good mindset going into the matches,” she said. “Have been trying to be maybe just a little bit more emotionally balanced. I think in the past, just having kind of more of the highs and lows leading into the matches and getting a lot more nervous and things like that has ultimately led to either being more tired the next round or things like that.
“But I think, you know, the last couple of months I have been just pretty even-keeled, and being able to consistently do that day in and day out I think leads to good things.”
It has been a phenomenal tournament for Keys from the service stripe. She has held in 46 of 48 service games and seen 35 percent of her first serves go unreturned.
She saved all nine break points she faced against Vondrousova to set a semifinal with 2023 Australian Open champion Aryna Sabalenka.
Sabalenka holds a 2-1 edge against Keys in their lifetime head-to-head, and the Belarusian defeated Keys in straight sets in the Wimbledon quarterfinals.
“I think there are obviously a lot of things that I can take from the match,” Keys said with a grin. “The No. 1 thing being she beat me. But I think that there are still going to be similar patterns and tendencies that she has that I can definitely lean into.
Keys had a 4-2 lead on Sabalenka in the second set in that Wimbledon clash, but let it slip. The 2017 US Open runner up will take the positives from it and hope to produce a different outcome on Thursday.
“In the second set at Wimbledon, I was up a break and I had chances,” she said. “I was definitely in the match and had opportunities, so I think even though I lost that match, it wasn't, like, you know, I wasn't in the match and I had no idea what I was doing out there.