Saturday, January 24, 2015

2015 AUS OPEN Day 6: Keys Upsets Kvitova, Venus and Serena Both Reach R16


Madison Keys has long been touted as the next big thing in women's tennis from America. Keys is a multiracial 19-year-old with a huge serve and big groundstrokes on both sides. She faced 2-time major champion Petra Kvitova in the 3rd round of the 2015 Australian Open and surprised many by eliminating the #4 seed in straight sets, 6-4 7-5, to reach her first second week in a major.

It was a very good day for American women, with both Williams sisters coming back to win 3-set matches. The bigger surprise was the 4-6 7-6(3) 6-1 win by Venus Williams over pint-size powerhouse Camila Giorgi, since Venus had not reached the second week of a major since  2011 Wimbledon. The more disturbing match was Serena Williams win over Elina Svitolina because the World #1 started extremely sluggishly, losing the first set 6-4. Although she garnered a 4-0 lead in the second set, it was not easy, but more of a war of attrition. Svitolina is a good player and managed to win another two games before Serena became more engaged and swept the last 8 games, winning 4-6 6-2 6-0.

Amazingly, there are now 4 American women in the round of 16 and 3 of them are in the same quarter: Williams, Keys, and Madison Brengle. The top seed here is Aggie Radwanska who will face Venus, while the Madisons face off for the other quarterfinal slot.

Serena is on track for a blockbuster quarterfinal with Victoria Azarenka, provided that Serena gets past Garbine Muguruza, the same youngster who gave her her worst beating ever in a major at last year's French Open, and Vika beats last year's Australian Open finalist Dominika Cibulkova.

Other potential mouthwatering matches are Maria Sharapova versus Genie Bouchard and Simona Halep against Ekaterina Makarova.

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