Experience pays off for Madison Keys against 16-year-old Mirra Andreeva

"So Far It's Been Working": Madison Keys Likes Bjorn Fratangelo's Chatty Approach

You know you’re overmatched in a tennis match when you appear unable to make your opponent miss. Against such air-tight opposition, the tactic of last resort becomes the nearly impossible task of hitting winners.

But that’s the situation Madison Keys faced today at Wimbledon in her round of 16 match versus Mirra Andreeva. There Keys was, five points away from elimination, serving at 3-6, 1-4, 30-40. Andreeva had posed so many confounding questions. Here came Keys with the answer in the form of an untouchable down-the-line backhand. Two points later, a similar placement won Keys the game. 

There followed increased aggression. This was the kind of forward movement Keys is so capable of, but over the course of her career, hasn’t always shown on high-stakes occasions. Following the troubled start, though, all the pieces eventually snapped into place. Keys earned a 3-6, 7-6 (4), 6-2 victory that put her in the Wimbledon quarterfinals for the first time since her only prior run to the last eight at the All England Club back in 2015.

“She played well,” said Andreeva. “I cannot say that I did something wrong. I was just playing.”

The revealing metric: In the first set, Keys was a mere one of six at the net. In the second, Keys was 15 for 21, including breaking back at 4-2 with a transitional, lunging, sharply angled lefthanded forehand winner. In the decider, Keys’ tally was nine of 16.

“That was a change of game plan,” said Keys. “I just figured I'd start charging the net and see what happened. It's a bit of reminder to me. I kind of always forget I'm not bad at the net, and I should probably get up there more often.”

As the early score line reveals, for a long portion of this match, Andreeva was thoroughly in control. Overcoming a 2-0 deficit in the first set, the 16-year-old Russian wove a first-rate web of speed, spin, and court management savvy that conjured memories of Hall of Famers Tracy Austin and Martina Hingis. Imagine Austin’s laser focus combined with Hingis’ tactical guile, and you’ll get a picture of what makes Andreeva so intriguing.

While winning 10 of 12 games, Andreeva read the court like a book, frequently arriving in the right spot early enough to hit one shot after another that compromised Keys.

“I think she moves incredibly well,” said Keys, “especially from a younger player, you don't normally see them already have the ability to get in and out of corners the way I saw her doing today.”

Ensnared by Andreeva’s mix of movement and moxie, Keys through this stage was repeatedly frustrated. Serves missed their spots. Groundstrokes were poorly calibrated, either sailing long or lined into the net. Slightly breezy conditions also seemed to unsettle Keys and hardly trouble Andreeva. Never mind that just last week, in highly gusty Eastbourne, Keys had won the title there for the second time. In the face of Andreeva’s presence, the past meant nothing.

“I think it's hard to play—it's more that she's 16, she's very free, going to play some of her best tennis," said Keys. "You go in knowing there's going to be moments where she's playing incredibly well. Obviously she's been playing well to get this far.”

And then everything turned around. On surfaces like clay, a player can assemble points one long rally at a time and methodically scratch their way back into a match. But for a power player like Keys, struggling on a grass court, that was not going to be the way to overcome Andreeva. Instead, Keys was going to have to press forward swiftly, propelled by pinpoint serves, concussive groundstrokes, accurate approach shots and crisp volleys.

All of those skills came into play through the latter stages of the second set and into the third. With Andreeva serving at 4-all in the second-set tiebreaker, Keys made her way up to the net and won the point. At 5-4, Keys sliced a backhand and opted not to charge forward, but the threat of such a possibility extracted an error from Andreeva. One missed forehand return later and the match was even—at which point Andreeva tossed her racquet, earning a warning that would subsequently prove consequential.

Psychologists, philosophers and scientists like to tell us that momentum is an illusion—merely a series of emotions and expectations we attach to time and occurrences. But that idea flies out the window when one starts a decisive set at a venue like Wimbledon. As the third began, Keys had let movement and execution kick-start her into emotional tranquility. Aided by what remains one of the smoothest service motions in all of tennis, Keys had found her range and become far less troubled by Andreeva.

In contrast, Andreeva floundered and soon faced nearly the same situation Keys had been in during the second set; in Andreeva’s case, serving at 1-4, 15-30. Fighting back, Andreeva held, then in the next game feathered a drop shot winner to earn a break point. Here, though, Keys’ commitment to frequent net-rushing throughout the second and third sets came in handy. A forehand approach shot clipped the net and elicited a swirling sliced forehand semi-lob from Andreeva that went into the wind. Fielding what appeared to be an awkward backhand volley, Keys moved well enough to put it away. That problem solved, Keys held to go up 5-2.

Would Andreeva hold and make Keys serve for the match? Twice, Andreeva was one point away winning the game. But on the second, Andreeva suddenly revealed that for all her precious court sense, she still has a few lessons to learn. After scrambling unsuccessfully to field a sharply angled Keys forehand volley, an angry Andreeva raised her racquet up in the air and into the grass it went. Having already been issued a warning, Andreeva now received a point penalty. “But I didn’t throw the racquet,” Andreeva said to chair umpire Louise Engzell. “I fell.”

The appeal, of course, had no chance of being successful, and so the score advanced one point further to Keys’ advantage. “But, honestly, I didn't have any intention to throw the racquet,” Andreeva said after the match. “I slid. Honestly, I thought that I will fall forward. Maybe it did look like I threw the racquet. I don't know. I didn't see any videos yet.”

On match point, Keys’ return went into the net. But wait: Keys challenged the call—successfully. So came a second serve, followed by a dynamic inside-out forehand return. Andreeva barely got it back, making it easy for Keys to smash a forehand winner.

A distraught Andreeva gave Keys a mild handshake and eschewed any such contact with Engzell.

“I mean, yes, because for me, she didn't do a right decision for me,” said Andreeva. “Yes, that's why I didn't want to shake hands to her.” In the name of youth and inexperience, such behavior will be forgiven. But not for long.

It was refreshing to see Keys alter her game plan mid-match. Up against an unknown and in-form opponent 12 years younger than her, Keys indeed proved herself a frequent and effective net-rusher. It will be fascinating to see if she brings that tactic as extensively into her next match and even beyond.