Madison Keys has stormed her way into the Madrid Masters semi-finals, with a roller coaster display against Ons Jabeur in quarterfinals. The 0-6, 7-5, 6-1 scoreline pretty much sums up the match. Keys dropped the first eight games but managed to wrestle back the momentum in the second set, before running away with the third.
Jabeur had destroyed former Roland Garros champion Jelena Ostapenko 6-0, 6-4 in the fourth round, and after just 24 minutes, it appeared the 2022 Madrid champion was about to do a similar number on the American. But Keys managed to stay mentally strong, coming back from an early break, and staying with the Tunisian until the final game, when she broke serve, to force it to a decider.
From there, Keys wasn’t going to take the foot off the pedal. After only winning 14 points in the opening set, Keys kept Jabeur to just 11 in the third set, cruising into a semi-final clash with Iga Swiatek.
It easily marks the American’s best result in Madrid. Going into this edition, she had only won 3 matches across 9 attempts. She now finds herself just a win away from making the final.
“My literally entire career, everyone has been, ‘You’ll love Madrid. It’s amazing. You’re going to do so well there,'” Keys said. “And I have lost, like, first or second round except for once every single year. I was, like, ‘I don’t think that’s true.’
“But yeah, I guess this year it’s finally clicking and maybe it is suited for my game, or at least this Madison’s game.”
It’s not like Keys can’t play on clay though. Her win percentage on clay (61%) is actually slightly above her hardcourt win percentage (60%). Though this is her first semi final on clay in 8 years.
“At one point it was, like, wow, this is embarrassing,” Keys said after the match. “We’ve got to figure something out. But I think eventually I was just, like, I’m just going to start going for things. I’m going to start just trying to focus on myself and my game, just try to get into every single game and just try to make things competitive.
“Once I did that, it felt like the momentum switched really quickly. Being able to get even just to 2-All in the second set, all of a sudden I felt like, okay, I’m actually really in this and I can win this match.”
This is just her fourth tournament for the year, after missing the opening months of the year with injury. If she can build on this kind of form, Keys could be a real danger in Paris, where she has been to the semi-finals before. But before then, the ultimate test against the world number one….
