By Chris Oddo | Sunday, January 25, 2015

 

Madison Keys stormed past fellow American Madison Brengle and into her first major quarterfinal on Day 8.

Photo Source: Corleve

There was no letdown for Madison Keys following her eye-opening upset of No. 4 seed Petra Kvitova in the third round. No time for reflection, no pause for celebration. In fact, the 19-year-old American barely had time to let nerves get to her as she stormed past fellow American Madison Brengle on Day 8. Keys barely batted an eye, instead almost unconsciously hammering 38 winners against only 3 for her shell-shocked opponent in a straight-sets victory.

Day 8: Serena Williams Survives Intense Battle With Muguruza

And just like that, a month or so after teaming up with Hall of Famer Lindsay Davenport, Keys has turned around a middling 10-10 record at the Grand Slams and found herself in the quarterfinals of a major for the first time.

Keys Talks Reaching Quarters

“There's definitely the high of winning and beating Kvitova and everything, and then having to kind of refocus, regroup, and go into another match, a match where, you know, I was a higher-ranked player, I should have won,” Keys told reporters after her 6-2, 6-4 victory over Brengle. “So it was a different pressure and it was different nerves. But, you know, I think I managed pretty well.”

She managed it with ruthless efficiency in fact, connecting on four of 12 break points while serving up six aces and only dropping five first-serve points.

The book on Keys is that she can be inconsistent, but when she is dialed in and not taking on too much risk, she can be as menacing as some of the more formidable ball strikers in the women’s game. Just ask Petra Kvitova, the two-time Wimbledon champion who had no answer for Keys’ titanic power during her straight-sets loss to the American on Day 6.

“She was going forward for it, playing real aggressive from the first point,” Kvitova said. “I think that she played really, really fast, aggressively. She didn't make a lot of mistakes at all. So it was really tough.”

Keys will next face either Venus Williams or Agnieszka Radwanska in the quarterfinals. Though she’s a combined 0-4 against the pair, there’s a feeling that Keys may have come so far so fast under the tutelage of Davenport in the last month, that she just might pull the upset.

No matter what happens, Keys is thrilled to be making waves in her last Slam as a teenager, but says she won’t be satisfied unless she shocks the world and wins the title.

“No matter what, I'm not really going to be satisfied with any win,” Keys said. “I want to be at the end of the tournament holding the trophy up. That's my goal in the long run.”

Before the tournament started, Keys words might have sounded a little outrageous. But after eight days and four convincing wins, it doesn’t sound so crazy at all.

Keys has been touted as a rising star since she earned her first tour-level win at the age of fourteen. Now that she appears to be following through on that promise, she’s ready to embrace the moment.

“It's definitely been an experience, really playing well, kind of living up to what people have been saying,” Keys said. “I'm just really happy that it's finally here and that I'm doing so well.”