Madison Keys Dismantles CoCo Vandeweghe to Join Sloane Stephens in US Open Final
(September 7, 2017) FLUSHING MEADOWS, NY – It will be a pair of first time major finalist in the final of the US Open on Saturday night as 15th seed Madison Keys joined Sloane Stephens in women’s final beating countrywoman, No. 20 seed CoCo Vandeweghe 6-1, 6-2 in the second night match.
The match lasted just 66 minutes. Keys hit 25 winners with only nine unforced errors.
Midway through the second set, Keys had to have her right upper thigh taped.
“I just didn’t want it to become something that would be bad,” Keys said of the medical time out. “So as soon as I kind of felt it get the tiniest bit worse, I just had it wrapped to try and prevent anything from happening.”
“I played really, really well,” the 22-year-old Keys said. “It was kind of one of those days where I came out and I was kind of in a zone, and I just kind of forced myself to stay there. I knew I was going to have to play really well in order to beat her, and, you know, I feel like once things started going, it just kind of fell into place. You know, luckily I was able to close it out the way that I did.”
“I think it’s hard to look back on it now, the way I’m feeling right now, but it’s an amazing experience to be in the semifinal, to be here playing for my country and to know that I worked this hard to get here, but it’s a pretty crummy feeling right now,” said Vandeweghe.
“Madison played an unbelievable match,” said Vandeweghe, “I didn’t really have much to do with anything out there.”
Keys said that it’s challenging playing a good friend: “It’s always tough, but I think the interesting thing about us is we have kind of been around each other for a long time. I have played Sloane before. I’m pretty sure she killed me, but I think it gets easier and easier as time goes on to play each other.
“It’s just — you figure out how to separate your friendship from being on the court, and obviously both of us want to win, and I think when we come off the court, we’re able to leave what happens there and still have a great friendship off of the court.”
Despite being on the verge of tears during her news conference, Vandeweghe talked about how she battle this fortnight in New York: “I’m most proud of how hard I fought through every round. Even today, as much as it was on Madison’s racquet, I think to get to this point, to have this opportunity, was all about heart and desire. That’s what I can be really proud of through these last two weeks.”
Both Keys and Stephens are coming back from injuries, wrist and foot, respectively.
Keys talked about why both of them have shown perseverance in their comebacks:”I think that we have just shown that we really love the game and that we are willing to work hard and do whatever we have to do to be back.
“But I think more than anything, it just shows that, you know, we can be put into any situation and no matter what we’re going to come back and, you know, do really big things.”
Saturday night will be the first all-American final at the US Open since 2002, when Serena Williams defeated sister Venus. The last major all-American women’s final that did not involve a Williams sister was back in 1990 when Martina Navratilova beat Zina Garrison for the Wimbledon title.
Keys talked about playing Stephens, whom she’s known since the junior days:
“I think Sloane is really good at defending, obviously, but I think we’re similar in the fact that we both like to try to attack and be on offense.
“Yeah, I mean, I would say she’s probably more comfortable defending and not going for bigger shots before me, but I would say we are very similar in a lot of ways.”
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