“She’s very difficult because the ball comes back over the net so quickly,” said the 29-year-old American after a 6-1, 6-3 semi-final defeat to Swiatek in the Spanish capital. 

“Maybe not with as much power as some of the other players have, but she does such a great job at taking the ball early, and it comes back so quickly, that you start feeling rushed.

“She obviously moves very well, so I feel like she does a really great job at making you feel like you have to start hitting these incredible shots from all over the court. She puts you in a bad position to where you start going for things that you shouldn’t.”

Knowing what to expect and doing something about it are, however, two very different things. On Tuesday, Keys renewed acquaintances with Swiatek in Rome only to suffer a near-identical experience. The Polish world No 1 cantered through the first set, quelled sporadic resistance in the second, and eventually prevailed by the same 6-1, 6-3 scoreline she posted in Madrid. Keys lasted six minutes longer this time around and engineered 10 break points, which was seven more than she managed at the Caja Mágica. Yet the story was otherwise unchanged. Evidently forewarned is not always forearmed.

And the thing is, Keys is a player of genuine pedigree. A former US Open finalist with a career-high ranking of No 7, the Floridian has reached the semi-finals or better at three of the four majors, including Roland Garros. Of the dozen finals she has reached in her career, three have come on clay, including one in Rome, where she was beaten in the 2016 final by Serena Williams. It is no secret that she prefers hard courts, but Keys knows how to win tennis matches on any surface. And as the analysis she offered in Madrid suggests, she understands Swiatek’s game. Indeed, Keys was one of only nine players to defeat the Pole in her annus mirabilis of 2022. So how has Swiatek been able to brush her aside twice in a fortnight for the average loss of just two games a set?   

The answer is not necessarily obvious. She doesn’t have a powerhouse serve like Aryna Sabalenka or Elena Rybakina. Her vicious topspin forehand, a formidable weapon, can also become a liability when she is denied time. And while even the uninitiated observer can see that her footwork, athleticism and defensive skills are off the charts, those virtues alone are surely not sufficient to explain why, at the age of 22, she has already racked up 102 weeks at the top of the rankings.

“I feel like when you look at her it doesn’t look like she’s doing anything massively, spectacularly well,” said Johanna Konta, the former world No 4 turned Sky Sports pundit, during Swiatek’s latest win over Keys. “But it’s the fact that she’s doing nothing wrong that is impressive. She just knows exactly how to play her opponent.  

“That’s what great players do incredibly well: their base level is so high that it really asks their opponents to play better more consistently than they normally would. But it’s not flashy, it’s just solid.”

Swiatek’s brand of solid is nonetheless a sight to behold when she is in full flight. She went through her full repertoire against Keys, taking the ball on the rise, creating angles from central positions, pouncing on the slightest invitation to attack. The American spent most of the contest off balance, scrambling from corner to corner, unable to bring her own weight of shot to bear. On the rare occasions Keys was permitted time on the ball, strokes that would have been winners against almost any other player came back with deflating regularity, the wing-heeled Swiatek sliding to conjure brilliant defensive plays even at the very end of her range. Rarely can the court have felt bigger to Keys.

So “solid” is a relative term where Swiatek is concerned. Solid was the improvised one-handed backhand drop shot that gave her a set point after just 26 minutes; the deep lob she produced when Keys approached behind what looked for all the world like a point-ending backhand approach; the smash that Keys then missed to concede the set, the result of cumulative, relentless pressure that made the American feel as though she had to do something extra to get the ball past her opponent.

It hardly helped that Keys ran into the Pole on a day when she could do no wrong on serve. Swiatek made a remarkable 85% of her first serves in the opening set, but it was in the second that her delivery really came into its own. In the fifth game, she faced four break points; on each occasion, Keys failed to put a return in court. It wasn’t raw pace or dead-eyed precision that saved Swiatek, yet neither was Keys’s failure to convert her opportunities purely down to profligacy. For all the discussion around the world No 1’s service, it is a vastly underrated weapon. This season, no player with six or more matches under their belt has won more service games, saved more break points, or enjoyed greater success behind their second serve.

“Honestly, I keep laughing about my serve, but I know it’s pretty good,” said Swiatek. “I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t. 

“Even if I don’t serve well, I know I can win points by just playing behind the baseline. I always have a plan B. I’ve had more and more matches where my serve was working. Having that combined, it just gives you a pretty good confidence.”

That confidence was plain against Keys. Dispensing with variety, Swiatek relentlessly peppered the American’s backhand, to the point where her coach, Bjorn Fratangelo, implored her to take remedial action, adjusting her return grip if necessary.

“Even if you just hold it there. Do It,” Fratangelo told her early in the second set. “Just keep it there and go. You know she’s going there.”

Four first serves followed, each to the backhand; Swiatek won the game to love. It would be easy to point the finger at Keys, but that would be to miss the point. It takes courage to keep going to the same spot, however often it might be working. The serve is the one shot over which a player has complete control; to telegraph your intentions not only nullifies that advantage, but also risks playing a perceived weakness into form. Swiatek’s serving strategy demonstrated her conviction that while Keys might know what was coming, there would be little she could do about it. 

That assurance, born of serial success, is another major weapon in Swiatek’s armoury. Her teak-tough mentality has served her at every turn in Rome. She was a point away from falling 5-1 behind in the second set of her opener against Yulia Putintseva. She needed eight set points to go ahead against Angelique Kerber, then immediately fell a break down in the second. And after racing through the opening set against Keys, she faced break points in three of the five service games that followed. On each occasion, Swiatek won in straight sets. 

Awaiting the Pole in the semi-finals is Coco Gauff, another big-serving American who knows what to expect. The pair have met 10 times, with Gauff’s lone success coming last year in Cincinnati. 

“I think most players know how to beat each other, but it’s all about are you going to be able to do it in that moment,” said Gauff, the world No 3, in the aftermath of that victory.

They have played twice since, with Swiatek winning in straight sets both times, first in Beijing and then at the WTA Finals. It is further proof that, against the world’s best player, understanding the challenge is very different to surmounting it. 

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It feels like a lifetime ago that the 25-year-old Belarusian supplanted Swiatek as world No 1 only to relinquish the crown eight weeks later at the WTA Finals in Cancún. The six months since have been a mixed bag for Sabalenka, who won her second grand slam title at the Australian Open, then suffered an unexpected dip in form that was compounded by tragedy in her personal life.

Her struggles have continued at the Madrid Open, where she has been taken the distance in all but one of her matches so far, but there appears to be light at the end of the tunnel. On Thursday night, Sabalenka produced her finest performance of the tournament to win an absorbing semi-final battle against Elena Rybakina. In the process, she ensured she would not be overtaken as world No 2 by Coco Gauff, maintained her defence of the title she won last year against Swiatek, and ended Rybakina’s 16-match winning streak on clay. 

None of those outcomes looked likely when Rybakina, who had barely put a foot wrong all night, lined up an inviting short ball that would have given her a match point late in the second set. But the world No 4 screwed a forehand narrowly wide, then compounded her mistake with another error, and suddenly Sabalenka had an unlikely route back into a contest she had trailed by a set and a break. 

It was a reprieve she grabbed with both hands, battling to a 1-6, 7-5, 7-6 (7-5) victory that not only kept her nestled behind Swiatek in the rankings but also set up a rematch of last year’s final against the 22-year-old Pole, who earlier defeated Madison Keys in straight sets.

“Probably that was the key moment,” said Sabalenka, perhaps somewhat unconvincingly, given that she initially struggled to recall it. “I don’t know how I was able to come back in this match. Probably she missed her opportunities, I used my opportunities. Maybe that was the key point; I don’t even remember. My memory is terrible.”

The latter claim was as unpersuasive as the Belarusian’s alleged recollection of Rybakina’s pivotal miss. Asked if last year’s win over Swiatek was the best performance of her career on clay, Sabalenka remembered it vividly enough to go even further, pronouncing it the best of the 26 tour-level finals she has contested. Some things clearly stick in the mind. 

“I would say definitely that was the best match I ever played, especially on a clay court,” she said. “I think the level was just super high. It was clean, it was an intense, powerful game. I think that was the best final I ever played.”

Judging by the dominant manner in which Swiatek dispatched Keys, Sabalenka will need to reach similar heights in Saturday’s final if she is to retain her crown. Having dropped her only set of the tournament to Beatriz Haddad Maia in the previous round, the Pole moved smoothly through the gears against Keys, securing an early break before stretching her lead in trademark style. The 20th-ranked American had her moments in the second set, but they were few and far between. A repeat of her 2022 win over Swiatek in Cincinnati was never on the cards. 

“Tennis-wise, I feel like I’m playing better every day,” said Swiatek. “But on the other hand, it doesn’t really matter, every day is different. I would say in finals it’s more about the mentality and how you maintain the right attitude and focus.”

Sabalenka showed those qualities in abundance against Rybakina, fashioning a win that owed as much to sheer force of will as the quality of her play. Suffocated early on by Rybakina’s destructive serving and precise, powerful play off the ground, the Belarusian found herself a set down in 24 minutes. When Rybakina then snatched another early break to open up a 3-1 second-set lead, Sabalenka looked down and out. But having forced her way back into contention, she matched Rybakina step for step down the stretch, fighting off two break points at 5-5 before winning five of the first six points in the climactic tiebreak to create the platform for a memorable victory. 

Rybakina, who had not lost a deciding set since her shock defeat to Anna Blinkova at the Australian Open, could only reflect ruefully on a result that ended a run of 12 consecutive victories when taken the distance. The most recent of those three-set wins came when she recovered from two match points down against Yulia Putintseva in the previous round, but there was to be no repeat of the stunning winners that baled her out of trouble on that occasion.

Instead, Rybakina could only reflect ruefully on the vital missed forehand that would have given her a match point and an opportunity to compete for a second straight clay-court trophy, following last month’s title run in Stuttgart. 

“It’s a pity to lose,” said Rybakina. “I had this ball on top of the net at 5-4, 30-30, it’s a pity when you have this opportunity, but I didn’t play it well… It is what it is.”

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The Polish world No 1, a three-time champion at Roland Garros who tends to be queen of all she surveys on her beloved red clay, had conceded just eight games in three matches en route to her quarter-final meeting with Beatriz Haddad Maia at the Madrid Open. So when Swiatek pocketed four of the first five games against the 11th-seeded Brazilian, the impression was very much one of business as usual.

Then Haddad Maia reeled off five straight games to seize the opening set, and we were left reaching for the record books. When was the last time anyone had won five successive games against Swiatek, let alone on a clay court? Paula Badosa achieved the feat at the Tokyo Olympics in 2020, but that was in another lifetime, when the Pole was ranked eighth and her ascent to the top of the game was still in its early stages. 

Things happen in tennis matches, and no player is immune to the kind of dip that saw Swiatek finish the opening set with 13 unforced errors, almost half her final tally of 27. But to put Haddad Maia’s success in context, at last year’s Qatar Open Swiatek won the entire tournament for the loss of only five games. So this was a collector’s item. The 22-year-old is more accustomed to inflicting such pain than sustaining it, a fact she demonstrated in the previous round against Spain’s Sara Sorribes Tormo, where she lost the opening game and then won the next dozen in a row. Were we on the verge of an upset?

Well, no. The response from Swiatek was devastating, an anything-you-can-do run of eight consecutive games that paved the way for a 4-6, 6-0, 6-2 victory and a semi-final appointment with Madison Keys, who later saw off Ons Jabeur in another wildly fluctuating contest. It was enough to make you think she was affronted.

“In the first set, for sure, there were ups and downs,” said Swiatek. “I made some decisions that weren’t really right for the moment. But I’m happy that I came back in the second and I could reset and get back to a solid game.

“It’s not that easy to choose the right solution, because you feel differently most times, you won’t get the same situations. 

“It took me a while today to find the right solution. Sometimes it can just click easily after a couple of points, and sometimes you really need to dig deep and try, try, try for 10 minutes and then it’s going to maybe click.”

For all Swiatek’s success on red dirt, it is no secret that she is less comfortable at the Caja Mágica, which lies roughly 650 metres above sea level, making it the fastest stop on the European clay swing. Madrid remains the only significant clay-court title to elude her grasp and, as Haddad Maia crushed returns from inside the baseline and hammered her flat, penetrating groundstrokes into the corners, it was easy to see why she has troubled Swiatek in the past, defeating her at the Canadian Open in 2022 and holding a set point in a tightly contested French Open semi-final last summer. 

The Brazilian’s big forehand and heavy southpaw serve are tailor made for conditions in which the thinner air allows the ball to travel more quickly. Once Swiatek stopped leaking errors, however, she quickly established unstoppable momentum. It bodes well for her meeting with Keys, another player who has overpowered her in the past. Like Swiatek, the American was required to come from behind against Jabeur, the champion of two years ago, finally prevailing 0-6, 7-5, 6-1 after losing the first eight games of the match.

“Obviously [it’s] not normal to go down 8-0 and then start playing tennis, but I was able to really reset and relax after getting that first game,” said Keys, 29, who beat Coco Gauff in the previous round.

“At one point it was like, ‘Wow, this is embarrassing. We’ve got to figure something out.’ But I think eventually I was just, like, ‘I’m just going to start going for things. I’m going to start just trying to focus on myself and my game, just try to get into every single game and just try to make things competitive.’ Once I did that, it felt like the momentum switched really quickly.”

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Heralded as a grand slam champion in waiting since the age of 15, Gauff has spent the past few weeks playing the best tennis of her life. Yet she had a sense of foreboding that her date with destiny at the US Open might be interrupted by climate protests, and so it proved.

A set away from repeating last month’s victory over Karolina Muchova in Cincinnati to claim a place in the final of her home grand slam for the first time, the 19-year-old’s nerve was tested by a 49-minute delay as police and security officials struggled to deal with a group of three demonstrators, one of whom had glued his bare feet to the concrete floor.

The demonstrators were roundly jeered by the Arthur Ashe Stadium crowd, but composure and resilience have been the hallmarks of Gauff’s run in New York, and she once again took things in her stride. Taken to a deciding set in three of her first four matches, the world No 6 has surmounted every obstacle in her path, her sure-footedness, self-belief and ability to harness the expectations of an adoring public more remarkable with each round.

So it was again as the American capitalised on a slow start by Muchova to advance to her second major final in 15 months with a 6-4, 7-5 win.

“I had a feeling it was going to happen this tournament,” said Gauff of the extended interruption. “It happened in the French Open, it happened in Wimbledon. So, you know, following the trend, it was definitely going to happen here.

“It is what it is. I think that moments like this are history-defining. I prefer it not to happen in my match, but I wasn’t pissed at the protesters. I know the stadium was, because it interrupted the entertainment. 

“It was done in a peaceful way, so I can’t get too mad at it. Obviously, I don’t want it to happen when I’m winning, up 6-4, 1-0. I wanted the momentum to keep going. But hey, if that’s what they felt they needed to do to get their voices heard, I can’t really get upset at it.”

On and off the court, it was an impressive show of calmness from Gauff. Magnanimity always comes more easily when you win, of course, and when play resumed it can hardly have harmed the teenager’s confidence that she has been virtually invincible in recent weeks after taking the opening set. This was her 15th straight win in such circumstances, a reflection of her burgeoning self-belief as well as the technical and tactical enhancements she has made since bringing on board the coaching expertise of Pere Riba and Brad Gilbert this summer.

For all the recent talk of Gauff’s improved forehand, the focus in the early stages was on the Muchova backhand. Or rather, the puzzling absence thereof. Frequently lauded for her variety, the 27-year-old came up with a seemingly infinite number of ways to miss backhands: driven or sliced, passing shot or rally ball, the Czech simply could not find the court. In the third game alone, Muchova missed four backhands in a row after establishing a 0-30 lead on Gauff’s serve. It was wretched stuff, a far cry from the resurgent form that earned her a place in the French Open final earlier this summer.

Muchova, who wore a protective sleeve on her sore right arm, was hardly helped by the partisan nature of a crowd that had come to see an American victory and an American victory only. When the Czech belatedly won her first game with a bold second serve ace, the stadium greeted her success with stone cold silence. Before long, though, that indifference would give way to anxiety.

One corollary of Muchova’s early difficulties was to create a false impression of Gauff dominance. The teenager’s best moments – a pair of early topspin lobs, a running backhand pass as she served for the set at 5-1 – were all the more notable amid the surrounding dross.  But with the opener in her grasp, three straight forehand errors from Gauff gifted Muchova a lifeline. Duly encouraged, the Czech intensified her examination of Gauff’s weaker side, and as she finally began to find her range, producing some sharp net play, she was rewarded with a series of cheap mistakes from the increasingly exasperated American.

By now it was a comedy of errors, and it was no surprise when Muchova, back on serve at 4-5, suddenly reverted to type, producing another woeful service game to concede the set. The momentum was firmly with Gauff as she began the second set with a confident hold, sending down a flurry of big serves, but the delay that followed saw the contest shift gears.

“I tried to take it as a positive,” said Muchova. “I could talk to my coaches. They were trying to wake me up.

“I tried, [and] after the break I actually played a little bit better. But it was not enough.”

Not so long ago, it might have been. As Muchova began to play with greater freedom and aggression, showcasing her athleticism and dexterity at the net, Gauff began to rush between points. For all her improvement since Wimbledon, where the disappointment of a first-round loss proved the catalyst for a summer that has brought titles in Washington and Cincinnati – and a morale-boosting first win in eight meetings with Iga Swiatek – here was a litmus test of her recent development.

When Gauff out-rallied Muchova to break for 5-3 before bringing up match point with an audacious drop shot, the American looked certain to pass with flying colours. But as Muchova suddenly upped the ante, averting the danger with a daring net raid, the mind reverted to Roland Garros, where the Czech performed an identical act of escapology to deny Aryna Sabalenka a place in the final.

Could lightning strike twice? It certainly looked possible when Muchova levelled at 5-5. But Gauff steadied herself to hold, absorbed the loss of a further four match points as the Czech produced some of her best tennis of the evening, and then came through a 40-shot exchange in which her opponent tried every variation of spin, height and pace in the manual to set up a sixth opportunity. Muchova had nothing left; seconds later, she missed one last backhand and Gauff was home and dry, the youngest American woman to reach a US Open final since Serena Williams in 1999.

Standing between Gauff and a maiden grand slam title is Sabalenka, the incoming world No 1, who survived by the skin of her teeth against Madison Keys, the 17th seed and 2017 finalist.

After an error-strewn start, another dose of semi-final heartbreak looked inevitable for Sabalenka when Keys served for the match at 5-4 in the second set. But the the Belarusian second seed belatedly roused herself, swinging freely for the first time all night as she claimed a love break. Keys needed a pair of big serves to fend off two set points and force a tiebreak, but Sabalenka dominated the shootout and went on to recover from a break down in the decider as she closed out a 0-6, 7-6, (7-1), 7-6 (10-5) victory.

“It was crazy,” said Sabalenka, who prematurely celebrated victory at 7-3 in the match tiebreak before realising she still needed to win three more points.

“I was all over the place. I was just like, ‘What can I do? She’s playing unbelievable, crushing everything.’ I was not able to do anything, I had zero control in the match.

“You just have to keep trying, keep staying there, and keep pushing it. Maybe you’ll be able to turn around this game. Lucky me, somehow, magically, I don’t know how, I was able to turn around this game.”

The post Gauff to meet Sabalenka in US Open final after Muchova win appeared first on Love Game Tennis.

At a Wimbledon where the women’s singles was widely billed as a tripartite battle for supremacy, Aryna Sabalenka, through to the semi-finals for the second time in three years after defeating Madison Keys of the United States 6-2, 6-4, is the last member of the “big three” left standing. 

The Belarusian second seed, unable to compete at the All England Club 12 months ago after Russian and Belarusian players were banned, will face Ons Jabeur after the Tunisian avenged her defeat to Elena Rybakina in last summer’s final with a 6-7 (5-7), 6-4, 6-1 victory.

With top seed Iga Swiatek also out, beaten by Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina, Sabalenka is the only remaining member of a trio who have won the last five majors between them. 

Should the 25-year-old thwart Jabeur’s tilt at a second successive final, she will achieve a yet more singular distinction, displacing Swiatek to claim the world No 1 ranking for the first time in her career. Like a first Wimbledon title, it would represent the fulfilment of a childhood dream. At this stage, though, Sabalenka refuses to entertain thoughts of either.

“I want both,” said Sabalenka, who won her first major title at the Australian Open this year. “But I’m trying to focus on myself, because I know if I start thinking about all this stuff, I’m going to lose my focus on court, my game. 

“So I’m trying to focus on myself right now and make sure that every time I’m on the court, I bring my best tennis. Then, later on, we’ll see if I’m ready to become world No 1 or if I’m ready to play another final.”

Sabalenka certainly brought her best tennis against Keys, who saw five of the first six games fly by in a blur of booming serves and pulverising groundstrokes. But the American world No 18, playing in her second Wimbledon quarter-final after reaching the same stage in 2015, began to dig her heels in. When Keys broke to lead 4-2, 40-0, a decider looked inevitable. 

“I was just kind of telling myself that it’s OK, we’re going to play a third set, that’s fine,” said Sabalenka.

There would be no third set. Instead, Sabalenka broke back immediately and saw out the win with aplomb. Yet the calmness with which she reconciled herself to the prospect of playing a deciding set for the second time in four matches, following an uneven second-round performance against Varvara Gracheva, offered further evidence of how successfully Sabalenka has tamed her previously combustible temperament.

She will need that serenity against Jabeur. Tunisia’s unofficial Minister of Happiness, who still finds last year’s final too painful to watch, went about the task of ending Rybakina’s Centre Court reign with a determination so grim that it almost made a mockery of her nickname. When she failed to serve out the opener at 6-5, finding the net with a backhand on set point before promptly handing Rybakina the initiative in the tiebreak with another error off the same wing, it looked likely to be another tale of what might have been for Jabeur. 

That impression deepened when the 28-year-old missed three break points early in the second set. Jabeur had been the better player for much of the contest, absorbing Rybakina’s pace and refusing to give ground on the baseline. But as the third seed began to land her first serve with increasingly regularity, the signs were ominous for Jabeur. The Kazakhstani expressed disappointment with her delivery afterwards, but in the second set she made more than two-thirds of her first serves, winning 70% of those points. It was redolent of her performance against Shelby Rogers in the opening round, where she dropped the first set only to cruise to victory once she had found her service rhythm. 

A year ago, Jabeur might have fought fire with finesse. This time around, she drew on a less familiar but no less effective area of her game: power. With Rybakina serving at 4-5, three mighty forehands brought up a pair of break points, the first of which Jabeur converted with a forceful backhand return. Jabeur finished the set with 13 winners to just three unforced errors. 

“I knew it was going to be a tough match,” said Rybakina. “I knew it’s a lot about physics for me, because she plays really good slices, she’s aggressive, the ball stays really low over the net. 

“I knew that I had to be there physically, well prepared, but I feel like it wasn’t the case today. Some moments I played really well, but I was not consistent.”

The tide was turning, and more was to follow in the decider, where Jabeur snatched an early break with some more heavy hitting. She did not look back. The two backhand piledrivers she fired down the line in the penultimate game will linger as long in the memory as any drop shot or dink. It was a long way from the artistry we have come to expect from Jabeur, but it was no less enjoyable for that. Her game is evolving, and perhaps our perception of it – and hers – needs to evolve too.

“I believe last year maybe I wasn’t ready to play this kind of match,” said Jabeur. “I think maybe today wasn’t that much fun. I was really hitting the ball. 

“Maybe I did few dropshots. It’s not the same as before. I was enjoying myself a lot. I was enjoying using her power and enjoying showing that I’m not one kind of a player that only mixes and does drop shots and slices. 

“If you want to hit hard, I’m here to hit as fast as I can. I did show that. Not only to the player, I showed [it] to myself, too.”

Whether she will want to demonstrate that quality to Sabalenka, who defeated her in the quarter-finals a couple of summers ago, is another matter. Taking on the world No 2 at her own game would seem imprudent, yet Jabeur’s appetite for retribution has not yet been sated.

“I’m going to prepare and take my revenge from two years ago,” said Jabeur, who believes facing Rybakina was perfect preparation. “I think I showed to myself that I can stand up against these players. 

“It’s a great proof for me to start the game and to be confident and to go 100%. Honestly, I have nothing to lose. I’m going to go play like the second and third set I played today.”

Stand by for fireworks.

The post Sabalenka to face Jabeur at Wimbledon as three becomes one appeared first on Love Game Tennis.

Nothing liberates a player quite like winning from match point down, which is why so many go on to win tournaments after surviving a brush with defeat, swinging with abandon as they make the most of what feels like a free hit. 

This year alone, Jelena Ostapenko, Leylah Fernandez and Caroline Garcia have all won titles after saving a match point at some stage, and Petra Kvitova could become the next addition to that list after battling past former champion Madison Keys in Cincinnati to reach her second final in eight weeks. 

Kvitova came within a point of defeat in a gruelling win over Switzerland’s Jil Teichmann in the opening round, and the 28th-ranked Czech was once again required to draw on her powers of recovery as she fought back from a set down to claim an emotional win over the home favourite. 

“It’s like a second chance, or that you were almost gone and now you are still here, and playing in the draw,” said Kvitova following her 6-7 (6-8), 6-4, 6-3 victory. “I’m glad that this happened to me. I don’t think that it’s ever happened to me, so that’s nice, to have this experience even at my age.

“It’s a big boost for me, for sure, after the season that I had. I know I won Eastbourne [in June], but it was on the grass, my favourite grass. It was pretty fast, faster than Wimbledon.

“So I’m really glad for it. The first round was really tight, down from the match points. I think always these matches are important for the tournament, for the confidence as well.”

The former Wimbledon champion, who has rarely prospered in the heat and humidity of a Cincinnati summer, will be equally encouraged by further evidence of the resilience she showed against Teichmann. Keys has been in blistering form this week, beating world No 1 Iga Swiatek and Elena Rybakina, the Wimbledon champion, in successive rounds, and the American’s burgeoning confidence was evident as she raced into an early lead.

Kvitova was twice required to stave off points for a double break that would have left her trailing 4-1 in the first set. She worked hard to level at 3-3, and later went on to recover from 5-2 down in the first-set tiebreak, but a blazing off-backhand winner from Keys brought up a second set point from which the Czech, for once, was unable to recover. 

Things are rarely straightforward between two of the finest exponents of first-strike tennis in the women’s game, however, and so it proved again as Kvitova built on early breaks in each of the next two sets to claim her fifth win in nine meetings with Keys. 

“I came back somehow, and the tiebreak was just very, very close,” said Kvitova. “We always have battles, like three sets.

“I just stayed there and tried to play until the end of every point. 

“It was an incredible battle.”

Kvitova will face another battle in Sunday’s final, where Garcia awaits. The Frenchwoman’s renascent form continued with a rain-interrupted 6-2, 4-6, 6-1 victory over Aryna Sabalenka. 

Garcia, who becomes the first woman ever to reach a WTA 1000 final after coming through qualifying, raced through the opening set before the first downpour of the afternoon forced a suspension of play. Her level dipped after the delay, but she recovered her rhythm at the start of the decider and ensured there was no repeat when the players were once again forced off at 3-1 in the decider. 

With 26 wins since the start of June, including titles on grass and clay, the former world No 4 has been the summer’s form player.

“No one expected it, that’s for sure,” said Garcia. “It’s a long way to come from qualies.”

In the men’s draw, Borna Coric defeated ninth seed Cameron Norrie 6-3, 6-4 to reach his first ATP Masters final since 2018. The Croatian, a former world No 12, is currently ranked 152 after undergoing shoulder surgery last year, but could break the top 30 next week should he follow up his win over Norrie, who looked uncharacteristically fatigued after his epic win over Carlos Alcaraz the previous evening.

If Coric is to put a title-winning seal on a week that has already brought wins over Rafael Nadal and Felix Auger-Aliassime, he will need to find a way past Stefanos Tsitsipas, who came through 7-6 (8-6), 3-6, 6-3 against Daniil Medvedev, the world No 1. 

Tsitsipas, who saved a set point in the opener, had won only two of his previous nine meetings with Medvedev, and looked to be in trouble again when he fell 5-0 behind in the second set. But the Greek fourth seed recovered to avoid the whitewash and held on determinedly – and at times brilliantly – in the decider after Medvedev, distracted by fireworks outside the stadium, hit four double faults to concede a break in the sixth game. 

“He got really tight, I think, with the first serves, wasn’t putting a lot of first serves in, gave me a double fault in the last few games of the third set,” said Tsitsipas. “I felt like the ball wasn’t really flying off his racquet. 

“I felt like he was trying too hard, and that’s when I knew that I pushed him there, and it was something that I did over many consecutive rallies, a lot of physical effort. I knew that was my opportunity to go and strike.”

Tsitsipas anticipates a battle in Sunday’s final, which will be his first in Cincinnati.

“I’m prepared for it,” he said. “I know it’s not an easy task playing against him. He’s coming back from an injury, he’s playing great tennis, and he’s going to work very hard for it.”  

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Barty’s sixth successive straight sets victory – ninth, if you include her romp to the Adelaide title three weeks ago – took her total time on court at Melbourne Park to a touch over six hours. In the process, she has conceded just 21 games; this century, only the Williams sisters have conceded fewer on the way to a major final. It may be 42 years since an Australian woman last reached a final at her home slam, but you would never guess it from the serene manner in which Barty has gone about her business.

There was no euphoria at the end, not on the court at least. An understated clench of the fist, a kind word for her vanquished opponent, a nod of acknowledgement to the crowd: that was as excited as Barty got. There is still one match to go, and she is not here to come second.

The 25-year-old will face Danielle Collins on Saturday with the aim of becoming the first Australian to win the title since Chris O’Neil in 1978. “Are you ready?” Jim Courier asked her on court afterwards. “Absolutely, let’s do it,” she shot back. Barty’s willingness to embrace the clamour of a public desperate to acclaim a homegrown champion leaves Collins, who later reached the first slam final of her career with a 6-4, 6-1 victory over Poland’s Iga Swiatek, facing an unenviable task.

“It’s fun,” said Barty, who is spearheading a home push that has seen four Australians reach the men’s doubles final – Nick Kyrgios and Thanasi Kokkinakis will face Matthew Ebden and Max Purcell on Saturday – and brought Dylan Alcott’s eighth consecutive appearance in the quad singles final. 

“It’s brilliant to be playing in the business end of your home slam. I’m not going to lie about that. It’s amazing. I think being able to experience it multiple times has been incredible, but Saturday is going to be a new experience for me. 

“So I go out there and embrace it, smile, try and do the best that I can. And whatever happens, happens. It’s been an incredible January, an incredible summer for us. I’m really looking forward to having one last crack here, to really go out there and enjoy it.”

The 51st-ranked Keys, who had dismantled two title contenders in the previous two rounds with her victories over Paula Badosa and Barbora Krejcikova, came in with a plan but was unable to execute it. The excellence of Barty’s sliced backhand, which the American had hoped to attack but found virtually unplayable, saw to that. By the time Keys started swinging with the freedom required to unsettle an opponent at the peak of her powers, she was a game from defeat. 

“I think the game plan was definitely trying to play a little bit heavier to her slice, so that she couldn’t pin me in that backhand corner,” said the 26-year-old. “The tough thing, though, is that you have to have so much racquet head speed when her slice is coming in, but then you also have to balance not overhitting it. 

“I felt like I started getting a better feel of it in the middle of the second set, but at that point being a set and a break down against the world No 1 is kind of a difficult position to start feeling yourself.”

Keys is hardly the first player to come up short against the multi-faceted Queenslander. You would need a microscope to locate any flaws in Barty’s game. Her forehand and first serve are immense, an irresistible combination of power and placement. Her second serve, delivered with heavy spin and relentless consistency, is impregnable, while her rhythm-disrupting sliced backhand is the stuff of nightmares for rivals more accustomed to slugging balls back and forth at escape velocity.

“Everything has just improved a little bit,” said Keys of the Wimbledon champion’s game. “I think she’s got a little bit more precise on her serve. I think her forehand she’s doing a really good job at mixing up paces and spins, as well. It feels like you can’t really get in a rhythm off of that forehand side.  Then on her backhand side, I mean, everything is coming in at your shoelaces on the baseline. So it’s not like you can really do anything.”

It will be intriguing to see what Collins can do. The combative American is unlikely to be beaten before she starts, as so many of Barty’s opponents appear to be. If Collins can reproduce the fearless shot-making, unwavering intensity and cast-iron belief that swept aside Swiatek, the top seed is unlikely to have everything her own way.   

It was a brutal exhibition of first-strike tennis from Collins, who danced like a prize fighter as Swiatek prepared to open the match on serve and immediately came out swinging. Rarely can the Pole’s second delivery have taken a more savage and sustained beating. Battering the ball off both wings, Collins raced into a 4-0 lead and never looked back, detained only by a momentary wobble as she served for the first set at 5-2. Barty will need all her guile to defuse the 27th seed’s firepower.

“It feels amazing,” said Collins. “It’s been such a journey and it doesn’t happen overnight. I had so many years of hard work and hours at an early age on court. Yesterday I was talking about the early mornings my dad would get up with me and practise with me before school. It’s just incredible to be on this stage and, especially with all the health challenges, I’m just so grateful. I couldn’t be happier.”

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After an all-conquering 2021 season in which she ended Australia’s 41-year wait for a female Wimbledon champion, there is nothing unexpected about Barty’s presence in the last four. The world No 1 has barely put a foot wrong at her home slam so far, and it is a measure of her dominance that 21st seed Jessica Pegula, who she demolished 6-2, 6-0 in 63 minutes, is the only player other than Camila Giorgi to detain her beyond the hour mark in her five matches so far.

Keys, on the other hand, can hardly have dreamed she would get so far. The American has been ranked as high as sixth in the world but, after struggling to adapt to a new world of Covid protocols and bio-secure bubbles last season, she is currently languishing at 51. That will soon change. Having won just 11 matches last season, Keys has now racked up that many victories in less than a month, compiling a 10-match winning streak – the best of her career – to win a title in Adelaide and reach her second Australian Open semi-final, a full seven years after she made the first.

Keys, whose destructive power game carried her to the US Open final five years ago, has done it in style too. Having taken out former champion Sofia Kenin in the opening round and obliterated eighth seed Paula Badosa in the last 16, the 26-year-old claimed another high-profile scalp in the shape of Barbora Krejcikova, the French Open champion and fourth seed.

A key feature of her progress has been a more measured approach that has seen her rein in her signature power game. “I’ve been working on it a lot,” said the American after her 6-3, 6-2 win. “It’s not something that I used to necessarily do in the past.  

“I’m really just trying to be a lot more measured and just playing within myself a little bit more, not necessarily trying to hit a winner on that ball, just constantly trying to set the point up to get to the net, to try to finish off on even the next ball. If it happens to be a winner, then it happens to be a winner.”

Keys is alive to the danger posed by Barty – “great slice, can dominate with her forehand” – but will seek to draw on her experience and more relaxed mindset as she targets a second major final.

“I’m seven years older and it’s not my first semi-final of a slam,” said the American, who has reached that stage or better three times previously. “I think I’m a little bit more prepared this time around than I was all those years ago.

“I have gone into every match thinking I can absolutely win any match that I’m out on the court. I will say it’s been kind of nice to be the underdog for the first time in a long time. It’s really just not even in my head about winning and losing. 

“It’s just going out, competing, trying to do what the game plan is. If that’s not working, going to Plan B. The rest is kind of not even getting into my brain.”

It is just the kind of balanced approach in which Barty specialises, which augurs well for what should be a tightly contested match if Keys can maintain the form that has got her this far.

“Maddie is an exceptional athlete, she has a great serve, great first strike off the return and off her first ball after her serve,” said Barty. 

“A lot of the time it’s about trying to put her in an uncomfortable position, try and get her off balance, because if she controls the centre of the court the match is on her racquet.  

“I need to be able to find a balance, problem solve my way through it, try and work out a way to nullify her strengths and bring it back to my patterns if I can, and understand it’s not always in my control.”

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“Dang, you saw that?” Osaka chuckled after launching the defence of her Australian Open title with an assured 6-3, 6-3 win over Camila Osorio, the world No 50. “I deleted it like three minutes after.”

Welcome to the world of the new Naomi, a carefree refuge from the tribulations of last year, when Osaka began the summer by withdrawing from the French Open to protect her mental health and ended it with a tearful announcement that she would be taking an indefinite break from the game. The former world No 1 appears to be in a better place both on and off the court, and how tennis needs her after the unsavoury events that have dominated the headlines in recent days. 

Ironically, the Novak Djokovic saga might actually have helped Osaka, whose return to the sport would otherwise have been more fully in the spotlight ahead of the season’s first slam. Instead, she has been able to slip quietly under the radar, reaching the last four at the Melbourne Summer Set before an abdominal injury forced her withdrawal. 

That will soon change if she continues to produce the kind of form that blew away Osorio in the early stages here. The Colombian, a former junior world No 1 who, at the age of 20, is just beginning to find her feet at senior level, must have wondered what she had got herself into. Caught in a maelstrom of exquisitely-timed winners, Osorio found herself 5-0 down in the blink of an eye despite barely putting a foot wrong. Unsurprisingly, after so long away from the game, Osaka struggled to maintain her stratospheric level of play, yet she was calm when the inevitable dip came, shrugging off her mistakes with a blithe air that augurs well for the challenges ahead.

“I just want to have fun, first of all,” explained Osaka, who is seeded 13th and expected to play Ashleigh Barty, the world No 1 and home favourite, in the last 16. “I can’t expect myself to win every match, but I do expect myself to have fun and challenge myself.

“For me, I came back when I wanted to come back. I just felt like there are situations where I previously would get upset. But at this point in my life, I’m here because I want to be here, and because I find that it’s fun for me. Might as well enjoy it while I still can.  

“I think just to be playing on Rod Laver [Arena] and to have, like, such a good streak on Rod Laver is something I could be proud of and something I enjoy.”

Significantly, the politically dialled-in Osaka, whose social activism has earned her a reputation as a soft-spoken agent of change, carefully sidestepped questions about the Djokovic situation. “It didn’t really affect me,” she said. “I saw that it affected the men’s draw a little bit, so you might have to ask a men’s player.” Her media interrogators failed to take the hint – the first two questions at her press briefing concerned Djokovic, while the third was about Peng Shuai – and it is perhaps indicative of the work that remains to be done on that front that she subsequently had to shut down further questions on the subject. That she did so, however, is indicative of the positive shift in her mindset after the travails of last season.

“I would say I feel more comfortable in my skin,” said Osaka. “[It’s] human nature to feel uneasy, to want to please everyone and stuff like that. I feel like there was a time after French Open where I felt like everyone was judging me. 

“It feels a bit weird when you go into a stadium to play and you’re kind of concerned what everyone’s gaze means. I’m not sure if I explained that well. Basically, right now I’m trying to learn how to be more selfish, but in a positive way.”  

With a blockbuster showdown against Barty potentially on the horizon, such pragmatism will be needful. The top seed, who is seeking to end Australia’s 44-year wait for a homegrown champion, opened her campaign in emphatic style with a 6-0, 6-1 rout of Lesia Tsurenko. It was the perfect start for the world No 1, who was beaten by the Ukrainian qualifier at the Brisbane International four years ago and extended to a decider by the 32-year-old at Melbourne Park in 2020. There was never any prospect of a repeat this time. Barty dissected Tsurenko’s game with clinical precision, her power and variety proving too much for the former world No 23 as she stretched her run of consecutive service holds to 42, a streak that began during her winning start to the season in Adelaide.

“The last kind of five or six matches I felt like I found a really good rhythm on my service games,” said Barty. “I’ve been able to serve my way out of some tricky spots and play some 30-30 points while not falling too far behind in service games. That has been a massive part of my week in Adelaide, and again tonight.  

“I think I did a pretty good job of winning first and second points. And if I didn’t, I was able to call that back and not dig myself into a hole where I was fighting off two or three break points in a row. I think [my ability] to manage service games has been really good.”

Elsewhere, Madison Keys brought an early end to Sofia Kenin’s challenge for a second title at Melbourne Park with a 7-6 (7-2), 7-5 victory. In a performance that belied her current ranking of 51, Keys fired 31 winners against her fellow American to underline the resurgent form she showed last week in Adelaide, where she won the sixth title of her career. 

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It was not a match-up either player wanted. As Stephens put it, “to play each other, again, someone has to win it, someone has to lose, it’s just sucky.” Much has changed for the two women since the 2017 final, not least their respective rankings. Once staples of the top 10, both now find themselves outside the world’s top 40 and battling to rekindle past glories.

When Stephens took the opening set by the same 6-3 scoreline as their final-day showdown four summers ago, history did indeed look set to repeat itself. Keys, though, had other ideas. Dominating on her first serve, behind which she won 100% of the points, the 26-year-old swept through the second set, commanding the baseline exchanges with her booming forehand as she smoked 11 winners.

Such boldness served Keys well in the decider, where she pulled off a stunning angled volley at 15-40 in the ninth game en route to a courageous hold. A late exchange of breaks set the scene for a tense finale, and when Stephens dropped three consecutive points to trail 5-3 in the tiebreak, the match looked to be on Keys’ racket. But Stephens held her nerve brilliantly, refusing to waver when Keys denied her a match point with another colossal forehand winner. She sealed the match at the third time of asking, greeting victory in muted fashion as a Keys backhand flew narrowly wide.

“I thought the level was really good,” said Stephens, the world No 66, who will play Coco Gauff next after the American teenager defeated Poland’s Magda Linette 5-7, 6-3, 6-4. “We are both looking to start winning some matches and get back to where we were. It’s just unfortunate we had to play each other here, because I felt like we were both on the upswing a little bit.

“I feel like once we kind of connect our games and like things kind of fall back into place we’ll be where we want to be. But obviously that gets halted when you play each other in the first round of the tournament, so that kind of sucks. I still think both of us are headed in the right direction, which is good.”

On an opening day that offered an abundance of potential upsets in the women’s draw, Garbiñe Muguruza came through a searching examination against Donna Vekic, edging home 7-6 (7-4), 7-6 (7-5). Muguruza, the ninth seed, recovered from 4-2 down in the first set and survived a determined fightback from the 57th-ranked Croatian in the second after leading 5-3.

“A very good win,” reflected the former French Open and Wimbledon champion, who has yet to progress beyond the last 16 in New York. “It’s a slam that, historically, it’s not my strongest … I feel like I have always came super prepared and, for whatever reason, my game didn’t click. But I don’t think about that now. Every year I come, I’m like, ‘You know what? That doesn’t matter. It’s a new year. Nobody remembers, nobody cares what happened in the past.’ I just have to go through the first rounds, which I didn’t manage to do before, and then get the confidence in playing on these courts.”

Similarly relieved to make it through was Simona Halep. Handed a brutal opener against Camila Giorgi, who recently claimed the biggest title of her career at the Canadian Open, Halep showcased a much-improved serve as she shrugged off a late fightback by the Italian. Halep, who fired down six aces and won 83% of points behind her first serve, missed two match points at 6-5 but held out to win 6-4, 7-6 (7-3).

“I struggled a little bit in the end to finish the match, but I’m happy that actually I have been strong enough in the end, in the second set, to finish the match,” said Halep, the 12th seed, who missed Roland Garros, Wimbledon and the Olympics with a calf injury. “I served well also the previous tournaments, so I feel a little bit stronger there. I worked a lot in the break, when I couldn’t actually move that much because of the leg. So I did practise a lot of serves.”

Naomi Osaka, the third seed and defending champion, safely negotiated her opener against Marie Bouzkova, the 87th-ranked Czech, winning 6-4, 6-1. It was a tougher start for second seed Aryna Sabalenka, however, the Belarusian coming through in three sets against Serbia’s Nina Stojanovic, 6-4, 6-7 (4-7), 6-0.

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