Keys taps into deeper vein of emotion in round-four win over Svitolina

NEW YORK—Madison Keys had been here before.

Midnight was approaching, and a fervent and surprisingly large crowd in Arthur Ashe Stadium was doing what it could to will her to victory in her fourth-round match against her higher-ranked opponent, No. 4 seed Elina Svitolina. Over the last two years, this round had become a stumbling block for Keys at the Grand Slams—she lost in the fourth round at all four of them in 2016, and she had lost in it at the US Open in 2015 and 2016.

At a certain point in every major, this go-for-broke player has stopped being able to simply overpower the opposition. She has, inevitably, run into a player who makes her hit too many balls, from too many uncomfortable spots. Svitolina, who has won five tournaments this year and put herself in the running for No. 1, appeared to be that opposition.

While Keys had snuck through the first set in a tiebreaker, Svitolina had run away with the second set, 6-1, and now led 4-2 in the decider. The problem for Keys was the same as it has always been: How to use the power she possesses, which is superior to virtually any of her opponents, while also making enough balls to stay in rallies. For the last hour, she hadn’t found that balance. Her down-the-line forehands landed in the alley; her backhands were driven into the middle of the net. Her shots lacked shape and she lacked the patience to change them.

“I definitely felt like I kind of hit a wall at the beginning of the second set,” said Keys, who won her last match, over Elena Vesnina, in a late-night three-setter on Saturday. “My energy dropped. Once I got broken in the third, I just kept telling myself, ‘Just try to figure it out, just get as many balls in as you can.’”

What Keys found, as she had found against Vesnina, was a reservoir of energy and emotion from the audience.

“I was lucky that I had an amazing crowd and atmosphere,” Keys said. “...No matter what the score is, they were definitely behind me. They definitely help you raise your level.”

In most cases, Keys would have been down on herself by the latter stages of a match like this. She would have hung her head and looked desperately in the direction of her coaches. But against Svitolina, Keys made necessity the mother of invention—or at least improvement.

From 2-4 down, Keys' shots took on what they so often lacked: shape. She hit them with pace, yes, but she also hit them with enough topspin to get them safely over the net and inside the lines.

“I went from beind down 5-0 in the second set to just kind of making a lot of balls and being tough,” Keys aaid. “I’m really happy with how I closed out the match today.”

At 4-4 in the third set, Keys did more than just make balls and shape her shots. When she held and the crowd let out its roar—sounding “like a jet engine and a giant heartbeat,” in the words of Andre Agassi—Keys threw her head back pumped her fists. It was an un-Maddy-like show of joy, which was matched by the tears in her coach Lindsay Davenport’s eyes.

With help from the fans, Keys had found a deeper vein of emotion in herself, and it propelled her through the final game. Powering the ball with depth and pace from both sides, running Sivtolina all over the court, and closing match point with a brilliant backhand winner from outside the sideline, it was one of the best games that Keys has ever played.

“It’s definitely more than just a win,” she said of her 7-6 (2), 1-6, 6-4 victory. “So often a match like that could have gone really quick for me, and I could have lost that third set fairly easy and come off and been really disappointed. So the fact that I dug deep and I figured things out, 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.”

Have we turned this corner with Keys before, only to see her turn back? To an extent, yes, and it could happen again; as she knows, there are no easy matches in the second weeks of Slams. But the Keys who raised her head up and pumped her fists at end of this one looked new. Maybe what was missing wasn’t smarter shot selection or more spin on the ball; maybe what was missing was emotion.

For now, she might want to request another wee-hour time slot in Ashe.

“It’s late night with Maddy,” Pam Shriver said to Keys when it was all over. “How’s it going?”

“It’s going pretty well, don’t you think?” Keys said with the grin of her life.