Garbine Muguruza ended her losing streak to Madison Keys. With long delays due to weather at the Western & Southern Open, the top seeded Spaniard held on to play hard against the young American and win 6-4, 3-6, 7-6(3) on Center Court at the Linder Family Tennis Center Thursday evening. The fight brought an end to the three-match losing streak along with the advance into the quarterfinals for a second time.
The two met nearly three weeks ago where the American swept Muguruza in straight sets on her way to the finals at Stanford. It was the third time that Keys defeated the Spaniard and important at the time that Muguruza had increased her place in the top five. With it being a clear concern midway into the tournament, the world number six had to figure out a strategy against the 22-year-old to regain ground with the U.S. Open less than two weeks left.
Keys took a huge break on Muguruza taking a 2-0 lead with force that her opponent couldn’t deal with. The wind was also playing a factor which soon led to a changing moment in the set. Muguruza began to fire back on the changeover that allowed her to cover the spread and even things at two all. The sixth seed took the lead but lost it on a loss of serve to the American who consolidated with a hold in the seventh regaining lead possession. Before play continued, Muguruza requested a medical timeout and left the court to deal with the issue.
After the conclusion of the timeout, Muguruza walked out with her left thigh bandaged in order to play at her desired level. When the action on court resumed, it resulted in a break for Keys who dealt with the conditions, leveling the score at four all. It brought a very tough battle in the ninth that went to deuce between the two. Both girls spanned four breaks in what became the longest of the match and the win in favor of Muguruza.
Serving for the lead in the set, the 23-year-old controlled her serve with the wind still playing a heavy role earning two set points to conclude 45 minutes. Despite having little success on winners and too many unforced errors, the mentality of Keys near the tail end of the set helped Muguruza take point in the match and go forward with the positive results.
Keys opened the second with a hold but knew that it was going to be the start of a long battle with the fourth seed. She watched as Muguruza held in the second before attack on the break in the third. Being down two breaks, Keys quickly forced deuce to get an opportunity to hold off but mistakes added to her frustrations. The game went to great lengths spanning seven minutes before Keys managed to put it away for the lead.
The next six games were a tug of war until the seventh where Keys made a stance that helped he edge away from the Spaniard gaining hold of the set. She had Muguruza behind the score giving her energy to come out of the second set and force her opponent to go the distance. Before the final set got underway, Keys called out the physio trainer to help her with a pain in her wrist that was suddenly bothering her. After a few minutes of massaging with lotion, the third set got underway under the threat of grey clouds.
Two games were played with each holding serve under the threat of rain falling. Muguruza was on point with the lead followed by Keys leveling the score. Before the fifth got into motion, Keys informed the umpire that she saw lightning which immediately brought a suspension to play. After two hours and four minutes of a rain delay, the players resumed with Muguruza serving in the fifth. Keys responded with a tight return game that allowed her to capture the break and lead once again. She made it a 4-2 run with control of the forehand serve against Muguruza.
The need to stop the American arrived in the seventh with a good hold that put her a game down. She fought for the key break to level in the eighth, winning on forehand errors from Keys. It was becoming a major turnaround for the fourth seed as she added a third consecutive win over the 22-year-old that gave her first strike at the match. Keys had other ideas on how the match would go and won her service with better showing on her shots that beat Muguruza to force a shootout. The 11th became her moment to shine as the offense got better and better leading to her first try to capture the match.
It was up to Muguruza to hold herself but Keys was taking point with her first serve dominating on the break. With two match point attempts, the American busted with errors that forced deuce and a chance for the Spaniard to get out of trouble. A long rally ended with a bad lob from Muguruza giving Keys a third try to get it done. She put too much power behind the returns and killed it with another shot behind the baseline that set up a tiebreaker for everything.
Muguruza took the first break out front on the score as Keys got nervous bringing back the unforced errors. The American had her moments of clawing back but smashes into the net only helped the Spaniard. With three match points, the fourth seed coasted to victory after 2 hour and 18 minutes clearly out of trouble and into the quarterfinals. Despite the well-deserved victory, the path to a title wouldn’t get easier for Muguruza as she faced Svetlana Kuznetsova on Friday.
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