15th seed Madison Keys delighted the home US Open crowd, coming from behind in the final set to win 7-6, 1-6, 6-4 against 4th seed Elina Svitolina.
Keys started the match well, wining the tight first set on a tiebreak. The American was clearly dictating, with aggressive strokes.
That all changed in the second, as Svitolina raced into a 3-0 lead. Keys game fell apart as her errors increased and the higher ranked Ukrainian settled into a more consistent rhythm. Svitolina gained a second break of serve to level the scores at a set apiece.
Svitolina’s relentless pursuit of a quarter-final place seemed unstoppable as she again took a break in the fifth game of the third set. Leading 4-2 in the third Svitolina had won ten of the last thirteen games since losing the tiebreak.
Incredibly though, the 4th seed would not win another game from that point. Keys immediately retrieved the break and held serve. This put the pressure on Svitolina, who now at 4-5 was serving to stay in the match. She failed to do so as Keys raced to 15-40. She won it on her first match point, ripping a backhand down the line to set up a meeting with Kaia Kanepi.
Keys becomes the fourth American through to the quarter-finals as she joins Coco Vandeweghe, Venus Williams, and Sloane Stephens. It is the best American representation in the women’s draw at this stage of the tournament since 2002 when five women including the Williams sisters, and Lindsay Davenport reached the same stage.
Keys: “Yeah I think it’s going pretty well so far. Partially its this amazing crowd and they totally helped me when I got down in the third set. I mean i feel like any time she’s (Kanepi) on the court she’s doing really well“.
