By Chris Oddo | Saturday January 20, 2018
Madison Keys dissected another lesser-ranked opponent on Day 6, mixing power with precision to bounce Romania’s Ana Bogdan, 6-3, 6-4, and book her spot in the second week of a major for the ninth time. Keys is seeding 17th but starting to look like she has a real shot to make a deep run as a former semifinalist that appears to be rounding into form at the right time.
Keys is rested and ready after a long offseason and it has shown in Melbourne. She underwent a pair of wrist surgeries last season, and was very careful to take some extra time, only playing once after the U.S. Open.
“The biggest thing for me, the biggest thing for my team and why we decided to end my season a little bit early, was just to have enough time to dedicate completely to rehabbing my wrist, not hitting tennis balls and not feeling rushed coming back into the new season,” she told reporters on Saturday. I finished the US Open and I was exhausted. So as amazing as that run was, the combination of being exhausted from that and having a wrist that still wasn't 100% perfect, I just needed to kind of shut it down, calm down, and then I was really excited to start the new season.”
Keys has struck her usual thunderous groundstrokes this week, but she’s also shown a bit more shot tolerance in her three victories. She hasn’t pulled the trigger too fast and has shown a willingness to craft points and play defense. She struck several impressive overheads against Bogdan and even went to the backhand slice at times.
Keys won 45 of 62 service points and saved all three break points she faced against Bogdan, and rattled off 29 winners to just 6 for the Romanian.
It was a solid performance from an athlete that playing with confidence. Keys will square off with France’s Caroline Garcia in the round of 16. Garcia has been solid as well this week in Melbourne. She battled past Aliaksandra Sasnovich, 6-3, 5-7, 6-2, to book her spot in the round of 16 at a major for the third time in her last four appearances, and for the first time in Melbourne.
22-year-old Keys improved to 14-5 lifetime at Melbourne. She has split her two previous meetings with Garcia.