Last U.S. woman in field rolls again
MELBOURNE, Australia — Madison Keys has continued her strong run through the Australian Open draw, returning to the quarterfinals for the first time in three years with a 6-3, 6-2 win over eighth-seeded Caroline Garcia on Monday.
The U.S. Open finalist, seeded 17th, has yet to drop a set at Melbourne Park and is averaging 62.5 minutes on court through her first four rounds.
Keys lost her serve in the opening game of the match, but broke the Frenchwoman five times as she raced through the next two sets. She had 32 winners to nine for Garcia.
Keys had wrist surgery and missed several months last year, but she is playing painfree again and looking increasingly confident. The only American woman to reach the fourth round said she feels like she’s playing without pressure since returning from the injury.
“I definitely realize how much l love it and how much pressure I put on myself ” in the past, she said. “Just being really happy to be back out here and not at home in a cast.”
Coming into the match, Keys had dropped only 14 games — the second fewest among the women through three rounds, just behind Angelique Kerber’s 13 games.
Keys will meet Kerber in the quarterfinals after the 21stseeded German beat Hsieh Su-Wei of Taiwan 4-6, 7-5, 6-1.
Kerber, a former No. 1 and the only Grand Slam singles winner left in the women’s draw, survived a frustrating match. With a mix of slice and chips, lobs and bunts, whippy half-volleys and wristy crosscourt ground strokes off both wings, Hsieh pushed Kerber to the extremes and unsettled her rhythm.
“Credit to her. She played an unbelievable match,” said Kerber, who is 13-0 this year. “I was feeling I was running everywhere. She was playing a lot of corners and drop shots. I was bringing a lot of balls back.”
On the men’s side, Tomas Berdych returned to the Australian Open quarterfinals for the seventh time after a 6-1, 6-4, 6-4 win over Fabio Fognini.
Berdych has been this far at Melbourne Park for seven of the past eight years. The only time he has failed to reach at least the quarters was last year, when he lost in the third round to Roger Federer.
Berdych would meet Federer again in the next round, if the second-ranked player won his fourth-round match against Marton Fucsovics later Monday. Six-time champion Novak Djokovic also was playing for a quarterfinal spot later in the day against Hyeon Chung of South Korea.
Unseeded Tennys Sandgren also was to play later against fifth-seeded Dominic Thiem. He is the lone American man left in the tournament.
In late Sunday action, Rafael Nadal secured his spot in a quarterfinal, beating Diego Schwartzman 6-3, 6-7 (4), 6-3, 6-3 in a match that lasted nearly four hours.
The 16-time major winner draped an arm around his Argentine friend and patted him on top of the head. If Nadal needed a fitness test in the first week in his comeback from an injured right knee, he got it.
Third-seeded Grigor Dimitrov dispatched Nick Kyrgios 7-6 (3), 7-6 (4), 4-6, 7-6 (4) to reach the quarterfinals.
Britain’s Kyle Edmund reached his first Grand Slam quarterfinal with a 6-7 (4), 7-5, 6-2, 6-3 win over Andreas Seppi.