“I think I started really well and just had the momentum. I’m really happy how today went,” Madison Keys said giving a big grin after grabbing her sixth career title at Adelaide against Alison Riske. It appears to have been Keys’ event from the beginning of the tournament.
She played aggressively and mixed up her game to come out winning towards the end. Keys demolished her opponents’ game playing self-assured and it showed the proof in round one as she faced no. 17 Elina Svitolina with expert strategies and neutralized the Ukraine’s game blasting 14 aces and tough tactics to win in straight sets.
But Russia’s Ludmilla Samsonova in the next round denied Keys a set, proving that she wanted to win very badly. Madison won the opening set and may have gotten a bit lack and started executing a bit poorly. She fell to Samsonova’s determined strategies but the deciding set, Keys pulled her game together and got tough to win the set and the match.
Madison Keys’ only compatriots in Adelaide was the teen Coco Gauff who she’d never played before and Alison Riske, a nearly veteran on tour who played Keys 4 other times and won only once. The teen had given Keys trouble from the begining by taking the first set.
Madison paced herself, corrected her opening set errors and went on to win in three sets off the defiant Gauff. Riske knew Keys’ game well and was quite weary thinking if she could come out of this match a winner. It didn’t work the other…
