KEYS KEEPS ROLLING AT U.S. OPEN, GAUFF GETTING IT DONE IN THE JUNIORS

Written by: Staff on 6th September 2018

KEYS KEEPS ROLLING AT U.S. OPEN, GAUFF GETTING IT DONE IN THE JUNIORS

epa06999883 Madison Keys of the US hits a return to Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain during their quarter-final match on the tenth day of the US Open Tennis Championships the USTA National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, New York, USA, 05 September 2018. The US Open runs from 27 August through 09 September. EPA-EFE/DANIEL MURPHY |

Madison Keys of the US hits a return to Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain during their quarter-final match on the tenth day of the US Open Tennis Championships the USTA National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, New York, USA, 05 September 2018. The US Open runs from 27 August through 09 September. EPA-EFE/DANIEL MURPHY

Heir apparents: Keys keeps rolling at U.S. Open, Gauff getting it done in juniors

By Ricky Dimon

At some point, the Venus Williams and Serena Williams era will come to end. Of course, who knows when that will be. Both appear to be ageless wonders, and Serena is even still in the running to win this year’s U.S. Open.

But whenever it does end, there are plenty of candidates to receive the torch and carry it for women’s tennis in the United States.

One of those candidates is Madison Keys, who is seemingly due for a first Grand Slam title. The 23-year-old has reached at least the quarterfinals in four of the last five majors–including a runner-up finish at the 2017 U.S. Open, a quarterfinal at the Australian Open, and a semifinal at the French Open. She will face Naomi Osaka in the U.S. Open semis on Thursday night.

“I think that I am doing whatever I can to put myself in the position to go deeper into slams,” Keys said following her straight-set win over Carla Suarez Navarro on Wednesday. “I think I’m feeling more comfortable in those big moments and like matches like tonight. I think just training hard the week before and trying to not put too much pressure on myself has really helped me do that.

“I have had some big moments that before I was losing and was probably putting too much pressure on myself. So just learning from those experiences, just having a better mentality about the whole situation, and remembering what my game plan is and just focusing on that instead of the actual occasion.”

Whenever Venus and Serena do finally hang up their tennis shoes, players like Keys, 2017 U.S. Open champion Sloane Stephens, and Coco Vandeweghe may be next in line. But the generation after Keys, Sloane, and Coco is already lining up.

At the forefront, for the time being at least, is 14-year-old Cori Gauff. Yes, Gauff is just 14 years old but has already made plenty of headlines. She was runner-up at the U.S. Open juniors event in 2013 and captured the French Open juniors title this spring.

Guaff, who is already in the top 1,000 of the main-tour rankings, played–or is playing–in a whopping four different disciplines this summer at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center: women’s singles, girls singles, girls doubles, and mixed doubles. She upset the No. 3 seeds in mixed doubles with Christopher Eubanks and is still alive in both girls singles and girls doubles (with partner Catherine McNally).

The Atlanta native and Delray Beach resident beat Lulu Sun and Selma Stefania Cadar in the first two rounds of the girls singles tournament and she will meet Oksana Selekhmeteva on Thursday.