Madison Keys becomes 4th American woman to reach 2017 US Open quarterfinals

The United States will be well-represented in the women’s quarterfinals of the US Open after 15th-seed Madison Keys pulled off the three-set upset of fourth-seed Elina Svitolina in the Round of 16 on Monday night. Keys won, 7-6 (2), 1-6, 6-4, in the late night match at Arthur Ashe Stadium.

There are now four Americans among the eight women in the US Open quarterfinals: Keys, No. 9 seed Venus Williams, No. 20 seed Coco Vandeweghe, and unseeded Sloane Stephens. They’re spread across all four matches, so technically it’s possible we could have an all-American semifinals in New York with a few more upsets.

This is the most American women to reach the quarterfinals of a US Open since Serena Williams, Venus Williams, Monica Seles, Lindsay Davenport, and Jennifer Capriati in 2002.

Keys came out playing aggressively from the start of the match, but by the end it seemed like she was trying to put away points early to compensate for her increasing fatigue. The result was a lot of great drop shots and other finishes, and a lot of unforced errors.

The stats tell that story out clearly, as Keys finished the match with 46 winners and 52 unforced errors. Svitolina, on the other hand, recorded just 20 winners, but limited her mistakes with just 26 unforced errors.

The first set went to Keys in a 7-2 tiebreaker after a competitive series of games. Svitolina responded by dominating the second set in the form you’d expect from the fourth-ranked woman in the world.

Keys took the early lead in the third set, 2-1, before Svitolina took advantage of some misses to break serve and win three straight games to go up 4-2. Keys then got her urgency back with the deficit and rallied to take the set, 6-4, as the crowd in New York gradually got more hyped.

Williams will face No. 13 seed Petra Kvitova and Stephens faces No. 16 seed Anastasija Sevastova on Wednesday. Keys gets unranked Kaia Kanepi and Vandeweghe takes on No. 1 seed Karolina Pliskova on Thursday.