Keys Cruising In Cincinnati, Will Meet Kvitova In SFs; Garcia Upsets Pegula
Former champion Madison Keys kept rolling at the Cincinnati Masters on Friday cruising past Elena Rybakina 6-2, 6-4.
The Wimbledon champion has a late charge toward the end,
“I think that first break was really important,” said Keys who won Cincinnati in 2019. “It was super important and helped me a lot. Then in that second set breaking back immediately I think really just kind of helped keep my momentum and not let her get too far ahead of me. I feel like when she’s playing on her front foot and dictating, things can go very quickly so I was doing whatever I could just to get her off of the baseline and as uncomfortable as possible.”
Keys will now meet Petra Kvitova for a 9th time. Kvitova, who saved match points in the first round against Jil Teichmann, had no trouble with qualifier Ajla Tomljanovic 6-2, 6-3.
Kvitova and Keys are 4-all in their series.
“We played first round last year here, so I think this is much, much better to play in the semis,” Kvitova said. “I think she’s really on fire. I love how Madison is playing. I think that she is one of the, like game playing, like one of the best.
“I think she is really playing very beautiful. It’s nice to see her in the semis, for sure. Unfortunately I’m playing her, but we will see tomorrow.”
Qualifier Caroline Garcia is playing her best tennis in a while. The Frenchwoman advanced to the semifinals with an upset win over American No. 1 Jessica Pegula 6-1, 7-5.
Next for Garcia is the lone Top 10 player left, Aryna Sabalenka. The nervy Belarussian advanced Zhang Shuai 6-4, 7-6(1).
“She’s in the Top 10 for quite a while now, always doing good in the big events,” Garcia said of Sabalenka. “You can always count on her. Doesn’t matter how many double faults she’s doing in one game, she is still here, still winning matches, not afraid to go for it.
“So it’s going to be a great challenge for me. I’m really looking for it. It’s a good challenge to play another aggressive player to see who can be the most aggressive and do the best they can.”
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