As she looked up to see Garbiñe Muguruza’s backhand sailing long, Madison Keys must have felt as if she had one foot in the quarterfinals at the Western & Southern Open. Keys was serving at 6-5 in the third set, she was up 40-15, and momentum was entirely on her side. The dazed Cincinnati crowd, or what was left of it after a two-hour rain delay and lightning show, wasn’t even all that fired up, because the result seemed to be a foregone conclusion.
Since falling behind 4-5, Keys had played nearly flawless tennis, holding at love, hitting forehand winners crosscourt, down the line and on the run, and watching as her opponent’s own forehand imploded. Muguruza kept sending that shot long, and kept flicking her racquet in irritation afterward; she knew she wasn’t generating the racquet-head speed she needed on the shot, and time was running out to fix it. One more forehand miss and this key pre-U.S. Open showdown would be over.
But rather than try to force that final forehand error, Keys began to kick her serve to Muguruza’s backhand. Muguruza responded with deep returns, and suddenly it was Keys’ turn to implode. She missed a makable forehand pass into the net on her first match point; she shanked a backhand wide on her second match point; and she netted another backhand on her third match point. Muguruza hung on to break, and the match soon did a complete 180.
In the deciding tiebreaker, Muguruza stopped missing, while Keys stopped finding the court. From 2-3, Keys hit a forehand into the net, a forehand long, a backhand into the net, and a backhand long. Muguruza had her first win over Keys in four tries, 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (3). Instead of moving into the quarterfinals, Keys was moving out of the arena as quickly as possible. We can only hope that those missed backhands down the stretch didn’t indicate a problem with her recently repaired left wrist.
Muguruza will be the one to advance to the quarters, where she’ll play Svetlana Kuznetsova. But whatever the result of that match may be, this was a win that could resonate for Muguruza in New York. First, she beat a potential Open contender whom she had never beaten. Second, she won when she should have lost. I actually thought her irritated flicks of her forehand were a good sign; instead of traipsing around the court in despair after each miss, which she has done in the past, Muguruza understood the problem and urged herself to rectify it.
If and when she starts imploding at Flushing Meadows, she’ll know what to do. And if she’s down match point, she’ll know she can still win.
