Keys to the game: Power & speed
WIMBLEDON — You head out to the tennis hinterlands to see a 19-year-old kid from Florida, and to see if Malcolm X was right. “Power never takes a step back. Only in the face of more power,” he said.
Madison Keys may or may not be up on her Malcolm X reading. She certainly knows how to punish a little round ball, though, and in a second-round match on Court 12, she was doing precisely that, Giancarlo Stanton in a white skirt.
When she won her first career title last week in Eastbourne, Keys, 5-10 and 145 pounds, hit serves as hard as 126 mph. That is three miles per hour faster than any of the 123 serves that came off Rafael Nadal’s racket Thursday. This isn’t the county fair strong man contest. You don’t get points for hitting the bell the most times, but that doesn’t make it any less compelling to see powerful people at play.
Juan Tordero is Keys’ coach with the USTA. You ask him how often he’s seen a female player with a game like this.
“Very few that can serve like that,” Tordero said. “It’s her biggest weapon, no question.”
Tordero was standing in a drizzle outside of Court 12, a couple of minutes after Keys moved into the third round with a 7-5, 6-7 (3), 6-2 victory over the No. 31 seed, Klara Koukalova of the Czech Republic.
It was not always pretty. Keys double-faulted six times and didn’t even get half of her first serves in over the final two sets. Her average second serve barely breaks the speed limit. Still, it was riveting to watch Keys rip into the ball.
“It was really just staying with it, and eventually feeling the ball a little bit better,” Keys said.
There are few things more intoxicating in sport than power. You package it with promise and you have the ultimate twofer, a young woman who is No. 30 in the WTA rankings, behind only Serena Williams and Sloane Stephens among U.S. females, and the youngest player in the top 50. Keys has already been this far in a Grand Slam twice before (including here last year), and is prominently mentioned as a future champion.
Just don’t mention that around Tordero, who understandably wants no part of the “future of American tennis” stuff.
“She is in a great place right now,” Tordero said. “It’s all part of the process.”
Keys bears a striking resemblance to Alexandra Stevenson, who had a heralded run to the semifinals here 15 years ago, and is still out there playing, at age 33. She lost in the first round of a tournament in El Paso, Tex. three weeks ago and made $228. She is ranked No. 469. The expectations and fanfare that came with Stevenson’s run might fairly be called the worst thing that could ever happen to a comparative tennis baby.
Koukalova is 32, and a talented and clever player, who spun drop shots at Keys, and hung in on the serve. But the power eventually took its toll, like punches to the midsection. Keys ripped a backhand return winner to close the first set, and hammered a 123-mph serve to wrap up Game 3 of the second. Her level fell, she sprayed some groundstrokes, but kept attacking. She went up, 4-2, in the third with the help of forehand winner behind a monster serve, then had an ace and a service winner as she raced the rain and closed it out. “It’s definitely nice to know in a tight point I can rely on my serve. It’s definitely a big confidence booster for me,” Keys said. Later she talked about Tordero’s process, saying “Sometimes it’s really hard not to focus on winning and losing right this second.”
Keys is getting there. She managed her emotions well Thursday, and kept pounding. She is ranked No. 30, and climbing. Power does not take a step back.