Melbourne
Madison Keys is back in the semifinals of a Grand Slam event, as the American eased past Roland Garros champion Barbora Krejcikova of Czech Republic on Tuesday. In their first meeting, Keys cruised to a 6-3, 6-2 victory over the reigning Roland Garros singles and doubles champion in just an hour and 25 minutes, to return to the Australian Open semis for the first time in seven years. "I think I played a pretty solid match today. Just so happy to be back in the semifinals here for the first time in a long time," Keys said in her post-match press conference.
"I am 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 it off on even the next ball. If it happens to be a winner, then it happens to be a winner," she added. Keys stormed to victory with 27 winners, 11 of which were aces.
The American, currently ranked World No.51, kept her aggressive play clean with her winners outpacing her 21 unforced errors. By contrast, Krejcikova's 12 winners were overwhelmed by 28 unforced errors. Sydney finalist Krejcikova had won 38 of her last 47 matches, but saw her serve broken four times by Keys on the day.