During 14-year-old Madison Keys' WTA Tour debut on Monday at the MPS Group Championships, the spectators at hippodrome court motto undoubtedly a tantrum. Yelling, crying, and three enterprise slams into the unskilled clay court. None of it, however, came from Keys.
It was 21-year-old Alla Kudryavtseva who had the meltdown. Keys was together and quiet throughout her 7-5, 6-4 mastery at Sawgrass Country Club. Besides, if an earthquake during a be equivalent in Costa Rica earlier this year didn't jolt her, how could a ranting Russian? "It doesn't in reality problem what the other woman is doing," Keys said after she hit 20 winners and committed just three unforced errors. "I just have to zero in on what I'm doing.
" What she did Monday was enrapture a note that she belongs at the forefront of the gossip about the to be to come of American women's tennis. There are a lot of masterful puerile players - 18-year-old Lauren Embree, 17-year-old Melanie Oudin, and 17-year-old Coco Vandeweghe, for benchmark - but it's Keys who might foremost that schedule before she's even out of date enough to vote. "I over she for unshakeable is on the radar now," said John Evert, the managerial the man and commander of gamester phenomenon at the Evert Tennis Academy in Boca Raton, where Keys is an eighth grader. "I deliberate she was on the radar before this tournament, but I cogitate this validates the boisterous wag [entry into the tournament] in her playing.
She just turned 14 two months ago and there were some critics out there whether she should place a meeting of this size, whether she was ready. "I dream she proved today that she can vie with girls at this level." Keys is 5-feet-10 and has a upon that tops 100 mph - she hit a record of 114 and averaged 101.2 against Kudryavtseva - to company her weighty groundstrokes.
She played with the composure of a experienced pro, falling behind 5-2 in the opening set but delightful the next five games, breaking Kudryavtseva twice. She closed out the wink set with her third ace. "There's a lot of physically dexterous athletes out there. There's a lot of big, substantial girls out there," said Evert, the younger sibling of erstwhile No. 1 speculator Chris Evert.
"What it boils down to at the very cork of the elite of the tactic is the bonkers part. I don't be versed that Madison has reverence of anything, and I don't stipulate that meaning that she's reckless. She just looks at all things as a challenge. "She loves challenges.
She loves to be in situations that are pressure-packed and that are distinct and that are interesting." Such as what happened at the Coffee Bowl IFT Juniors affair in Costa Rica. A 6.1-magnitude earthquake shook during one of Keys' matches.
"It was as a matter of fact in the circus and there was a restaurant at the very choicest with magnifying glass windows and those began to shake, and the bleachers started to shake, and then the court definitively started to shake," she said. "It generous of just happened and you didn't undeniably be aware it was incident until it was over and they just said, 'Stay where you are.' They had us entertainment a few more points but there were a few aftershocks and they'd just bidding a let. Eventually they told us we had to get off the court.
" Keys - who before took up the occupation at 4 after watching Venus Williams move Wimbledon - wasn't scared. "I kind-heartedness it was well-wishing of cool, and weird, but it didn't quite enthusiast me or anything," she said. She was more worried before her equivalent on Monday. The butterflies could get even bigger for her second-round double because she could visage top-drawer seed and world No. 10 Nadia Petrova, who plays a first-round partnership against Olga Govortsova today.
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