WHAT HAPPENED: In an extremely tight, if frequently loosely played, encounter of blistering ball striking, 20th-seeded American Madison Keys survived an upset bid by the Italian Camila Giorgi, roaring back from a 2-5 deficit in the final set to win in a tiebreak. Keys outlasted Giorgi, 6-4, 5-7, 7-6(6) in two hours, 22 minutes.
The match was error-plagued for much of its duration–Keys and Giorgi combined for 85 unforced errors–but it turned into a late-afternoon thriller in Louis Armstrong Stadium.
Few if any women crack the ball as hard as Keys and Giorgi. In fact, few men do (it’s true!).* The second-round match between the tall American Keys and the relatively pint-sized Italian Giorgi was a chance for some sonic thunder on a sunny day.
Though both are natural ball-strikers, neither player is especially known for her subtlety on court. The nearly 6-foot Keys has fluid strokes and a live arm, with a service motion that is pure Pete Sampras redux. Giorgi, just 5-foot-6, is all about timing and racquet speed–and a game plan that doesn’t consider anything other than full blast.
The knock on both players has always been that with their penchant for power, they lack consistency and have a tendency to go for broke when a more controlled or conservative approach might serve them better.
All of that was in evidence on Wednesday. Keys, a former Top 10 player and US Open finalist in 2017, in the end was better able to harness her enormous power. Giorgi, who owns three career titles, is always fun to watch and dangerous because of the punch she packs. But Giorgi is also predictable. At key moments the Italian was predictably erratic, failing to capitalize on 12 of 16 break-point opportunities.
After securing the first set, Keys appeared to have a hold on the match, but in the second, Giorgi came out smoking, striking a much cleaner ball. She raced to a 4-1 lead, holding on to deadlock the match.
In the deciding set, Giorgi jumped out to a 5-2 lead, twice knocking Keys down with deep backhands that skidded off the baseline. Yet she surrendered the next three games, allowing the American back into a match she had twice lost control of.
The match wasn’t the prettiest of encounters. But there were plenty of thunderous blows and brilliant balls that painted the lines, too. Keys’s big shots landed more often when she needed them.
Keys advances to the third round, where she meets compatriot @Coco Gauff, the 12th seed and French Open finalist this year.
WHAT IT MEANS: Keys, 27, is fighting her way back up the rankings. Earlier this year she dropped to No. 87 even though she reached the semifinals of the Australian Open. Major championships have long been expected of Keys. For some, given her enormous natural talent, the American has seemed a bit of an underachiever. She lost in her lone Slam final to pal Sloane Stephens, the last American singles champion in Flushing. The Floridian-by-way-of-California came into the Open riding a very good result, reaching the semifinal of the WTA 1000 in Cincinnati, where she registered impressive wins over No. 15 Jelena Ostapenko, No. 1 Iga Swiatek, and Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina.
The veteran Giorgi, 30, has had splashes of intermittent success at majors and big tournaments. A Wimbledon quarterfinalist in 2018, she was the surprise winner at the WTA 1000 in Montreal in 2021, and she has notched six Top 20 wins in Grand Slams (and 36 overall in her career); most recently she defeated No. 7 Aryna Sabalenka at Roland Garros this spring. In the past year, though, Giorgi’s ranking has dropped to No. 67 from No. 33, and she has not been past the second round at the US Open since she reached the Round of 16 in 2013.
MATCH POINT: *About those speed stats for Keys and Giorgi, which do indeed rival the men: Keys recorded the fastest average forehand speed of both men and women at the 2014 French Open (127 km/h). And Giorgi claimed the second-fastest backhand speed (127 km/h) at the 2021 Australian Open, which ranked her just behind Dominic Thiem. The Italian had the fastest average backhand speed among women (116.9 km/h), which would have placed her among the Top 10 men. She also had the fastest average second serve speed among women (159.3 km/h).
