NEW YORK, September 5, 2017
Madison Keys delighted the home crowd in Monday’s night session of the US Open, outlasting No.4 seed Elina Svitolina of Ukraine 7-6, 1-6, 6-4 in exactly two hours of play. The 22-year-old US-American will now contest her first quarterfinal at Flushing Meadows, taking on Kaia Kanepi from Estonia.
“It means the world to me to make the quarterfinals,” said Keys during her post-match press conference. “It was a really rough start to my year. This is just amazing. You know, I’m really proud of myself for digging deep and figuring that out tonight.”
“It’s definitely more than just a win,” Keys continued. “So often a match like that could have gone really quick for me, and I could have lost that third set fairly easy, come off and been really disappointed. So the fact that I dug deep and I figured things out, you know, I came out with a win means a lot to me. More than that, it just proves how deep I can dig and how hard I can fight.”
Federer Sets Del Potro Clash
Earlier in the evening, Roger Federer remained untroubled in his match against Philipp Kohlschreiber, firing 39 winners, including 11 aces, while converting four of seven break points under the lights on Ashe. The Swiss maestro celebrated a 6-4, 6-2, 7-5 in one hour and 49 minutes and moved to an impressive 12-0 head-to-head advantage over the German.
“It was a great match for me against Philipp, he can be very tough but I protected my serve very well and that helped me tonight,” Federer said.
Federer will next take on Juan Martin Del Potro, leading 16-5 in their head-to-head records. Their most recent clash took place at the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 event in Miami earlier this year. The 36-year old-prevailed 6-3, 6-4.
“To play him here after our epic final in 2009 is great and I think we’re both looking forward to it, or at least I am,” the third seed told.