Keys seemed on her way to bid farewell to the English Championship and to fail to qualify for the quarter-finals for only the second time in her career (the first in 2015), after losing the first set and falling behind in the second 1-4.
But the 28-year-old American rose up and came back from far away to impose a tiebreaker, which she ended in her favor, before completely controlling the decisive third set.
Thus, Andreeva, who qualified from the qualifiers, failed to become the youngest player to reach the quarter-finals of the third Grand Slam since her compatriot Anna Kournikova in 1997.
Andreeva’s second participation in major tournaments, after Roland Garros this year (she reached the third round), ended in controversy as a result of receiving a second warning in the match for throwing her racket to the ground in the eighth game of the third set, which caused her to lose a point.
Andreeva objected to the referee’s decision, claiming that she had lost her balance and her racket had fallen from her unintentionally.
However, this protest did not prevent Keys from praising her Russian opponent, saying, “I knew that she was an exceptional player. I knew that I had to stay in the match and get a chance to return the break. I entered the pace and continued in this way.”
And she continued, “I would be lying if I said that I did not feel the pressure. I did not want to be the first player to lose to her (in a final price) and give her the opportunity to qualify for her first quarter-final in the major tournaments.”
Keys will face in his ninth quarter-final in the major tournaments (the best result of which she reached the final of Flushing Meadows in 2017) with the Australian Open champion, the Belarusian Arina Sabalenka, the second seed, or the Russian Ekaterina Alexandrova.
© 2023 AFP
2023-07-10 12:46:14
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