In one of the warm up tournaments coming into Wimbledon, Madison Keys defeated Barbora Strycova 6-3 6-4 to clinch her second WTA title. Through winning the title this week, Keys will rise to No. 10 in the world rankings and become the first American woman to debut into the Top 10 since Serena Williams did in 1999.
The Keys to victory for Madison Keys
The American demonstrated from the get-go that when she strikes her first serve and gets a high percentage of powerful heavy first deliveries she is a force to be reckoned with. Her penetrating groundstrokes from inside the baseline took time away from Strycova, who struggled to handle the pace that Keys was generated off many of the rally balls. This was evident in the first set where Keys won 100% of the points when she got the first serve in, ensuring that the American would have the upper hand in the majority of the rallies. Many would argue it was grass court tennis personified with Strycova trying to find solutions to the game that Keys imposed on the Czech. Keys obtained the advantage, taking the first set 6-3.
Strycova provided more of a problem for Keys in the second set. She earned a break point opportunity in the second game of the second set but could not get the vital break that would have given her more confidence in dealing with her opponent’s persistent velocity of groundstrokes. Another problematic puzzle that was allowing Keys to stay within touching distance of Strycova was that the Czech was blocking a lot of returns back into play, which only gave Keys the time to set up her long, heavy shots from inside the baseline. As we have seen over the years, Keys is less dangerous when someone takes time away from her and prevents her from being authoritative in the outcome of the points being played. Unfortunately for Strycova, she hasn’t got a powerful enough game to speed up her opponents as she is one of those rare players that excels in the variety of shots she produces on a tennis court.
Keys was losing a lot of the rallies where her backhand was under the spotlight; there is no secret that that is her biggest weakness. Luckily the Czech couldn’t find Keys backhand enough during the match, which subsequently meant that Keys was dictating a lot of the points with her forehand, her best shot. The fact that Strycova does not play a power game gave Keys more ambition in covering the net and making the most of the shorter balls that Strycova was giving her. Keys confirmed this in her press conference.
“I tried to do that more often (come to the net) but when you’re playing someone like Ostapenko, who hits as hard as she does, it’s very hard to come in on that. I think Barbora, her game draws you forward a little bit more. But it’s definitely something I’m working on and trying to put in my game more.”
By saving all four break points on her serve, Keys served the match out comfortably to cap off a fantastic week in the career of the 21-year-old. An interesting development will be whether she can produce this form at Wimbledon again and potentially go further than she did last year when she made the quarterfinals. During her post-tournament press conference, Keys talked about the importance of getting a lot of matches under her belt before Wimbledon starts in a week’s time.
“I’m feeling pretty good. I think getting this many matches in a row was a huge opportunity that I think can definitely help me at Wimbledon. I obviously really love the surface, so the more I get to play on it, the happier I am. It definitely gives me some confidence and I would love to follow this one up with that. But yeah, no, it definitely feels good knowing that a lot of people that have done well here have done well at Wimbledon. So it definitely gives me a good feeling.”
It’s a terrific year for American Women’s tennis with Sloane Stephens winning three WTA titles, Keys victorious in Birmingham, and the resurgence of Venus Williams, who returned to the Top 10 at the age of 36. In fact it is the first time three Americans are inside the WTA Top 10 since September 2005 when Lindsay Davenport, Venus, and Serena Williams all featured in the Top 10.
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