Madison Keys will face Elina Svitolina in the last 16 of the US Open for the second time in three years.
When they played in 2017, the American withstood an excellent fightback from the Ukrainian to win 7-6(2) 1-6 6-4. She went on to reach the final.
Fast-forward to 2019 and both players are in the World’s Top 10 and playing very good tennis. They both won their third-round matches in straight sets, but their respective clashes were very different.
For the American, it was a tale of two contrasting sets as she won 6-3 7-5. In the first one, she played superbly. She slammed down 8 aces and 14 winners to cruise to it in just 28 minutes.
Despite her high standard of play, something was not right with the World No.9. She called for the trainer between the sets and took some painkillers while Kenin took a tactical bathroom break.
The younger American made the stronger start to the second set. She put pressure on Keys’ serve and earned a total of six points across the older American’s first three service games.
Crucially, she failed to convert any of them, and the score rolled along to 4-3. At this stage, Keys requested to see the doctor, who checked her blood pressure and asked her plenty of questions. Happily, he declared that she was fit to continue.
Keys steels herself to close out the match
To the World No.10’s credit, she managed to raise her level a little bit from this point on. This uplift from Keys, along with the scoreboard pressure, seemed to weigh heavily on Kenin. She played a poor game on serve at 5-5, and the older American seized the opportunity to break.
Despite this, the set still looked to be heading for a tie-break when Keys fell 15-40 behind on serve. But once again the World No.20 failed to capitalise. She made two poor errors to allow the World No.10 to level the score. Keys then wrapped up victory two points later.
“I’m not feeling 100% tonight,” Keys said in her on-court interview. “I’m really glad I was able to get through in two (sets). It would have been a lot trickier if I had to play another set.”
She continued, “This was definitely a test. I’m really happy I was able to mentally get myself up mentally and keep competing, and to play some of my best tennis on the big moments.”
Svitolina brushes aside compatriot Yastremska
The American will probably need to be at her best in every sense when she takes on Svitolina in the next round, as the Ukrainian looks to be in excellent form.
In the first round, she comfortably beat American teenager Whitney Osuigwe in straight sets. Then she produced a superb performance to take down Venus Williams.
Svitolina had to work hard to win both of those matches. She ran nearly 5,900 feet against Osuigwe and then a remarkable 7,425 feet in two sets against Venus.
However, it was a different story when she faced Yastremska. The young Ukrainian played very poorly: she made 36 unforced errors and won just 15% of points behind her second serve.
Consequently, Svitolina did not have to play anywhere near her best to beat her 6-2 6-0. For most of the match, she simply put as much pressure as she could on the World No.32 during rallies and watched as the errors piled up.
Furthermore, the World No.5 only needed to run 3,419 feet during the match, which is less than half the distance she covered against Venus.
This could spell danger for Keys, because it means that Svitolina will be feeling very fresh when they face one another.
On the other, the American is the stronger attacking player of the two and she has enough power and skill to hit a great defender like the Ukrainian off the court. It promises to be a fascinating match.
