WHAT HAPPENED: Madison Keys returned to familiar territory on Wednesday night at the US Open. The No. 17 seed reached her third US Open semifinal with a convincing 6-1, 6-4 win over No. 9 seed and reigning Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova.
"I love playing here. In front of a home crowd, you feel like you can get out of any situation," Keys said in her on-court interview. "Whenever I walk on court here, I feel like I'm at home."
Their quarterfinal clash was briefly delayed during the first game for a spectator that required medical attention. When play resumed, Keys reeled off 11 of the next 12 points en route to storming out to a 5-0 lead. Vondrousova bravely staved off two set points to get on the board, but Keys comfortably wrapped up the set in the next game with a scorching forehand winner.
Vondrousova appeared to still be bothered by a right elbow injury that she struggled with in her fourth-round victory over Peyton Stearns and forced her to withdraw from the women’s doubles event with Barbora Strycova. Most of her first serves landed in at under 100 mph and her second serves sat up in Keys’ strike zone, allowing the American to dictate play from her first shot.
The Wimbledon champion's elbow appeared to warm up in the second set, allowing her to increase the velocity on her serve and swing more freely in the baseline rallies. She racked up five break points with Keys serving at 3-4, but the No. 17 seed dug deep to erase all of them and hold serve.
Energized by her stubborn service hold, she broke Vondrousova in the next game with a crushing return and closed out the match with a big first serve after one hour and 26 minutes. She saved all nine break points that she faced throughout the night.
WHAT IT MEANS: Keys is through to her first Grand Slam semifinal since the 2018 US Open. She’s produced some of the best results of her career since starting to be coached in June by her fiance, ATP pro Bjorn Fratangelo. She stormed to her first title of the year in Eastbourne without dropping a set and followed that result up with a quarterfinal showing at Wimbledon.
Her back-to-back wins this fortnight over Jessica Pegula and Vondrousova mark the first time she’s scored consecutive wins over Top 10 players since the 2022 Australian Open.
MATCH POINT: Next up for Keys is a semifinal showdown with No. 2 seed Aryna Sabalenka, who defeated No. 23 seed Qinwen Zheng earlier in the day. Sabalenka leads Keys 2-1 in their head-to-head series, including a straight-sets win this year in the Wimbledon quarterfinals.
But while Sabalenka secured her first Grand Slam title this year in Melbourne (d. Rybakina), her semifinal record (1-5) in majors is far less desirable. All five of her defeats in major semifinals have come in three sets, including heartbreaking US Open losses in 2021 (l. Fernandez) and 2022 (l. Swiatek).
"Almost a completely different match tomorrow. She's playing unbelievably now. There's a reason she's going to be No. 1 in the world [on Monday]," Keys said of her next opponent. "It'll be a lot of hard hitting, not a lot of rallies. I'm just going to buckle up and get to as many balls as I can."
