KEY BISCAYNE, Fla.—“Be patient, be patient, be patient!”
That's what Madison Keys’ coach, Jesse Levine, kept telling her during her quarterfinal against Angelique Kerber here on Wednesday. He said it when he visited her on a changeover, and he barked it again between points. It was the right advice, of course; im-patience has never been a winning trait, in tennis or any other walk of life. And Keys, despite her famously itchy trigger finger, appeared to agree: Whenever Levine brought the word up, she nodded along.
The only problem was, by my calculation, Keys successfully took his advice just one time: Down 3-6, 1-4 and falling fast to Kerber, Keys finally eased off on the trigger, went for depth rather than all-out pace, moved the ball from corner to corner with plenty of clearance over the net and won the point. It was obviously too little too late: Shortly after, Keys—thoroughly frustrated by Kerber’s impenetrable defense— missed a volley and sent her racquet flying into the net after it.