Madison Keys: US Open Player of Day Three

Sep 2, 2015; New York, NY, USA; Madison Keys of the United States celebrates after defeating Tereza Smitkova of Czech Republic on day two of the 2015 U.S. Open tennis tournament at USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. Mandatory Credit: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports

US Open Player of Day Three: Madison Keys

Many of the top seeds struggled in the women’s draw on day three. Serena Williams scraped by Kiki Bertens. Her sister, Venus struggled to take out Irina Falconi. Belinda Bencic was lucky to make it through to the third round (more on that below). The players who we expect to be dominant at the grand slam level were showing signs of weakness.

So instead of the usual suspects, it was the turbulent 20 year-old Madison Keys who may have delivered the day’s best performance, taking out Czech Tereza Smitkova 6-1, 6-2. Her winners count was typically bulging at the seams, while her unforced error count was astonishingly low. With probable meetings with Agnieszka Radwanska and Serena Williams in the next two rounds, Key’s performance was encouraging of her chances of reaching a maiden US Open quarterfinal.

What makes the win particularly impressive, though, is that it represented the first time that Key’s could win a second match at a tournament since Wimbledon. Winning consecutive matches at a tournament is something Keys has only been able to do 5 times this year. Indeed, throughout the US Open Series, she developed an unfortunate habit of winning her first round matches, before losing very winnable matches in the second round.

So for subverting that trend, and doing so in style, Madison Keys is our Player of the Day for Day Three of the US Open.

Also, as great as Keys was on day three, Aga Radwanska, Elina Svitolina and Ekaterina Makarova all deserve shoutouts for delivering dominant performances and showing why they’re top-20 seeds at this year’s US Open.

Winner: Eugenie Bouchard

Eugenie Bouchard is back on track. Well, sort of.

She’s still spraying errors and still appears uncomfortable on court, but it’s heartening to see Bouchard win her first back-to-back matches since Indian Wells in March. The Canadian followed up her victory over Alison Riske, with a three-set win over Polona Hercog. In doing so, she became the only seed in her eighth of the draw to reach the third round. Could she reach her second grand slam quarterfinal of the year?

Loser: Grigor Dimitrov

Did we ask too much of the Bulgarian affectionately dubbed ‘Baby Fed’? Did his Wimbledon semifinal run last year create an impossible standard for him to meet? Either way, it’s disappointing to see Grigor Dimitrov exit the US Open in the second round, especially to unseeded Kazakh Mikhail Kukushkin. He wasn’t playing particularly well coming into New York, but he should have at least progressed to a third round meeting with Marin Cilic.

Winner: Belinda Bencic

I had already written out a loser segment for Belinda Bencic upon seeing her three match points down in the second set of her clash with Misaki Doi. But then she somehow managed to turn the match around to win in three sets.

Playing sloppy tennis throughout the first two sets, Bencic found herself serving down 5-6, 0-40, having lost the first set 7-5. She appeared disconsolate and aggravated, making the prospect of matching her quarterfinal run last year seem unlikely.

But she managed to serve her way through tears to save the match points, before tightening her groundstrokes and minimising her errors to clinch a straightforward second set tiebreak and the third set. The resilience that she demonstrated mark that of a much more experienced player, and will give her a lot of confidence heading into her third round clash with Venus Williams.

Former Players of the Day

Day Two: Caroline Wozniacki

Day One: Benoit Paire

Who do you think was the most impressive performer on day three of the US Open? Let us know in the comments below!

Next: Power Ranking Serena Williams and the Top 25 Women Before the US Open

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