Unseeded teenager Madison Keys crashes Australian Open semi-finals
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Version 0 of 1. Few if any singles players in the upper echelons of the WTA tour are as old as Venus Williams. There is no one as young as Madison Keys at the top, either. Only Canadian Genie Bouchard (a year older), among the top 25, was born in 1994 or later. So the May-December matchup, the all-American pairing, the backstory of the Williams sisters’ influence on the biracial Keys as she grew up, and the major prize at stake — a spot in the Australian Open semi-finals — all set up a fascinating dynamic as the 34-year-old and the 19-year-old squared off in Rod Laver Arena Wednesday afternoon. Youth prevailed over age and wisdom, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4, but not without a tough battle that left Keys with a painful left adductor she will have 24 hours to address before taking on … yes, another Williams sister. That used to be par for the course in the waning days of Grand Slams. It has been a while. No1 seed Serena Williams made quick work of No11 seed Dominika Cibulkova in the other quarter-final played Wednesday, winning 6-2, 6-2. “I mean, it definitely feels amazing. It’s one of those things where you want to feel this way all the time. But it’s not, you know, this unbelievable excitement either ‘cause you want to keep winning and you want to keep doing better,” Keys said. “I am very happy and I am very excited, but also not getting too far ahead of myself and being too content where I am.” Williams wasn’t happy with her own play which, in truth, was patchy. You might have expected it more from the Grand Slam last-eight rookie than the experienced veteran. But neither was giving the other much rhythm; the big-serving power was, under the circumstances, not conducive to great tennis. “You have to give credit where credit is due. She played really well. This is her moment today. I didn’t — I think it was pretty rare that I was able to string together three or four points without an error. That was unfortunate for me today. But next time I’ll be able to play more solid,” Williams said. There is some praise in there, tempered with Williams’s feeling that she didn’t play well on the day. Gracious? Not overly. But Williams, whose ranking will jump to about No11 with her effort in Melbourne, has spent more than enough time the last few years being a gracious loser. Often, the 34-year-old had to grin and bear it after losing to players who, when Williams was fully healthy and not robbed of her energy by her battle with Sjögren’s syndrome would have been dispatched with alacrity. Williams is feeling it again — that adrenaline, that feeling of competing for big titles, how very, very good it feels to win. If there’s any takeaway from all this for her, it is very much that. The match was a hard-hitting affair featuring two of the rare women on the WTA who can actually serve. It was not, by a long shot, a classic; too many errors, a little too one-dimensional, and cleaved in the middle by a medical time out that required Keys to leave the court to have her left adductor taped. That unscheduled intermission left Williams on court cooling her heels, on an already cool day. She wasn’t particularly proactive with the free time and when Keys returned, the youngster turned a 1-4 deficit into 4-all. Williams won the set anyway, and wouldn’t bite on making the medical timeout an issue afterwards. The elder American had her chances and, until Keys’ anti-inflammatories kicked in, she looked to be on her way to a showdown with her baby sister. When Williams led 3-1 in the third set, Keys’ shoulders were slumped, she was making all sorts of errors, and she was just flailing away and hoping the ball would find a line. And then, it turned on a dime. Williams had issues on serve for parts of the afternoon, particularly with the first delivery landing into the net. That’s a technical glitch that has plagued her entire career, one she never seemed to have the interest or will to address. Keys was still swinging away and suddenly, she was landing blows and evened the score at 3-3. Then, Williams broke back as Keys was serving into the sun. It was now Williams’ turn to serve into the sun. She had to catch her toss a few times to find the right slot in which to strike it. And then she was broken. The looks of angst and pain were gone from Keys’ face — transferred directly to the face of coach Lindsay Davenport, sitting in the players’ box. At times, Davenport looked as though she wanted to be ill, right that very second. And then, in a moment, Davenport’s face turned from tortured to jubilant as her new charge finished the job. She then dashed off to attend to her other responsibilities, including commentating as well as playing a legends’ match later in the afternoon. “She told me she was just going to dart up the stairs, no matter what,” Keys said of Davenport. Agent Max Eisenbud, jumped up and celebrated. Also the agent for Maria Sharapova, Eisenbud sported his Sugarpova cap (the candy Sharapova endorses) for the extended photo opportunity. The leg injury had Keys flashing back to last year’s Wimbledon, when she had issues with the same muscle and ended up tearing it, forcing her to retire. “It was kind of an overwhelming moment. It was kind of scary. But luckily was able to catch it before I did any real damage to it,” she said. “I felt it since the beginning (of the tournament). It’s been tight, but it’s been something that, you know, with some treatment it’s been fine. “Then one shot in the match, all of a sudden I felt it kind of really get tight. I thought I was close to pulling it,” she added. Keys’ opponent, from the sound of it, isn’t feeling all that great, either although it didn’t show against Cibulkova. Serena Williams has had some coughing fits this week, and her voice is croaky and hoarse. Maria Sharapova and Ekaterina Makarova, the other semi-finalists, had an extra day of rest because they played their quarter-final matches Tuesday. Both semi-finals will be played Thursday. Keys is the third straight 19-year-old to reach the semi-finals here. In 2013, it was countrywoman Sloane Stephens. Last year, it was Bouchard. It’s worth noting that whenever Serena Williams has gotten past the quarter-final stage in Melbourne, she has won the event. This will be the first All-American Grand Slam semi-final since Williams defeated Davenport at the 2002 US Open and now, Keys will be charged with doing what few have done in tennis history — defeat the Williams sisters back to back. She will have some resources on hand to help her figure out how to do that. Davenport did it in Los Angeles back in 2004, benefiting from a Venus Williams second-set retirement in the semi-finals. As well, Keys could ask Martina Hingis, who is still around playing mixed doubles. Hingis tried in vain three times, before finally getting it done in 2001 right here at the Australian Open. Hingis defeated them back-to-back in the quarters and semi-finals. She didn’t have much left for Jennifer Capriati in the final. |