Madison Keys celebrated the Fourth of July with a Centre Court debut and a place in the fourth round at Wimbledon, defeating fellow American Amanda Anisimova 3-6, 6-2, 6-3.
The Australian Open champion was making her Centre Court debut, while Anisimova returned to Centre Court after finishing runner-up here a year ago.
Anisimova made the stronger start, breaking for a 5-3 lead in the opening set before serving it out.
But Keys turned the match around in the second set with her serve. She mixed pace and placement effectively, won 76 percent of her first-serve points, hit four aces, and repeatedly earned free points or short balls she could attack.
While Keys’ serve grew stronger, Anisimova struggled to control her forehand. She finished with 27 unforced forehand errors and 42 unforced errors overall, repeatedly missing from that wing as Keys applied pressure.
(Susan Mullane-Imagn Images)
Keys broke twice in the second set to level the match. In the deciding set, she broke at 2-1 and protected that advantage the rest of the way, closing out the victory in two hours and one minute.
Keys finished with 13 winners and 23 unforced errors. Anisimova struck 15 winners but was ultimately undone by her 42 unforced errors, particularly off the forehand side.
The win sends Keys into the fourth round at Wimbledon for the fifth time.
In her post-match press conference, Keys said: “Yeah, so happy to be in another second week here at Wimbledon. A great first Centre Court appearance for me. All good things (smiling).
“I feel like kind of going into this match, it played out kind of how I expected it to. I kind of felt like it was really going to be whoever could get break point chances and just kind of capitalize on them as quickly as possible was probably going to be the one that was able to win the match.
“We weren’t going to have 45-ball rallies. I think it was just after the first set, I just felt like if I could get myself in a couple more of her service games, even just a couple of points, I feel like in the first set I think I had a break point chance, maybe one, but I felt like a lot of her service games I wasn’t sort of putting any pressure on her. She was holding fairly easily.
“So instead of trying to get, like, too big picture and make myself think like I have to break, it was really just, ‘Let me see if I can get to 30 in the game, just so I feel like I’m getting in some of these games.’ I think kind of focusing on that helped a lot. I just felt like after that, it was continuing to try to serve well.”