Honestly, who saw that coming? A player whose name was on no one’s lips at the start of this grass court season putting together a string of unexpected wins, stretching her victory streak to nine matches to earn a quarter-final berth at Wimbledon 2023.
That’ll be the 16-year-old qualifier Mirra Andreeva, right? Wrong. Madison Keys halted the teenage phenomenon’s remarkable campaign with a dramatic victory of her own on a blustery No.2 Court.
Riding the wave of her triumphant Eastbourne crusade en route to Wimbledon, the experienced No.18 seed inched back from a set and 1-4 down to overhaul the youngster 3-6, 7-6(4), 6-2. It is her first quarter-final at Wimbledon in eight years.
As Andreeva felt the match slipping away from her, the extraordinary composure she has exhibited throughout her progress here cracked at last. Initially it showed as frustration - earning a warning for hurling her racket away at the loss of the second set - then tears, crying openly during the 1-4 changeover in the decider, and then audible exasperation, as Keys saved a break point to reach 5-2.
But the worst came at deuce in the final game, when Andreeva slipped on the baseline and appeared to throw her racket on to the turf again.
At once umpire Louise Azemar Engzell called another warning, which of course this time meant a point penalty - match point. Andreeva protested that the racket flew out of her hand unintentionally, to no avail.
As if that wasn’t drama enough, having apparently sent down an unreturned serve to save that match point, the line call was challenged and the ball shown to be clearly out. Andreeva’s second serve wasn’t up to the job, and Keys closed out the match.
“I’m still trying to figure out how I turned that around,” Keys told the crowd. “She’s obviously a phenomenal player who’s playing with no pressure and is going for everything. I had to find a way to stay in the match, keep the momentum going… and here we are.
“You don’t want to be the person who loses to her, for her to get to her first quarter-final. I knew if I could stay in the match my many – many, many – more years on Tour would kick in. I’ve fallen short of getting back in the quarter-finals a few times. It’s absolutely amazing to do it.”
For a long while, Andreeva looked blithely on course to become the youngest quarter-finalist here since Anna Kournikova in 1997, and the youngest at any Grand Slam since Sesil Karatantcheva at Roland-Garros two years before Andreeva was born.
Keys was all set to become her latest seeded victim this Fortnight, going the same way as No.10 Barbora Krejcikova (who retired with injury) and No.22 Anastasia Potapova.
Andreeva was a point from 5-1 in the second, when a frantic Keys scrabbled to a foothold in the match by playing an outlandish winner with her left hand.
Gradually she remembered how she had started the contest, taking control of the points, disrupting Andreeva’s ideas. Keys was coming to the net more, often at her most deadly when she seemed barely to take the racket head back at all.
By the decider, the whole mood of the match felt different as Keys fended off break points. Andreeva couldn’t work the problem, choosing her shots less wisely than before. The match was slipping from her grasp long before she helped defeat on its way.
But the impact she has made here is unarguable.
“It’s a lot of positives to take from this week," Andreeva said. “Obviously it’s my first time on grass. I kind of didn’t expect to go that far in Wimbledon because first time on grass, I had no experience at all. I passed quallies. It gave me a lot of confidence.
“It’s a good experience for me, for sure. I hope that next year I will do better here. We will see if I really can.”
Any minute now the Women’s Tennis Association online media guide may decide to enhance their information about Andreeva with an actual photograph of her – at present, she is so new that her profile merely features a generic silhouette.
Madison Keys’ picture has been in place for years, of course; and her place in her first quarter-final at Wimbledon since 2015 is well deserved.
New this year:
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See the projected Path to the Final of every player in the Gentlemen’s and Ladies’ singles draws with IBM Likely to Play
View how favourable or difficult a player's draw is, with IBM AI Draw Analysis
