When it comes to the US Open, Sloane Stephens and Madison Keys only do extremes. Four years ago, these two close friends contested a lopsided final at Flushing Meadows, an overwhelmed Keys collecting just three games as Stephens romped to the title. This time around, they faced each other at the opposite end of the draw and produced a protracted and fiercely competitive contest, Keys coming from behind to force a nail-biting decider only for Stephens to narrowly prevail 6-3, 1-6, 7-6 (9-7) in two hours and 10 minutes.
It was not a match-up either player wanted. As Stephens put it, “to play each other, again, someone has to win it, someone has to lose, it’s just sucky.” Much has changed for the two women since the 2017 final, not least their respective rankings. Once staples of the top 10, both now find themselves outside the world’s top 40 and battling to rekindle past glories.
When Stephens took the opening set by the same 6-3 scoreline as their final-day showdown four summers ago, history did indeed look set to repeat itself. Keys, though, had other ideas. Dominating on her first serve, behind which she won 100% of the points, the 26-year-old swept through the second set, commanding the baseline exchanges with her booming forehand as she smoked 11 winners.
Such boldness served Keys well in the decider, where she pulled off a stunning angled volley at 15-40 in the ninth game en route to a courageous hold. A late exchange of breaks set the scene for a tense finale, and when Stephens dropped three consecutive points to trail 5-3 in the tiebreak, the match looked to be on Keys’ racket. But Stephens held her nerve brilliantly, refusing to waver when Keys denied her a match point with another colossal forehand winner. She sealed the match at the third time of asking, greeting victory in muted fashion as a Keys backhand flew narrowly wide.
“I thought the level was really good,” said Stephens, the world No 66, who will play Coco Gauff next after the American teenager defeated Poland’s Magda Linette 5-7, 6-3, 6-4. “We are both looking to start winning some matches and get back to where we were. It’s just unfortunate we had to play each other here, because I felt like we were both on the upswing a little bit.
“I feel like once we kind of connect our games and like things kind of fall back into place we’ll be where we want to be. But obviously that gets halted when you play each other in the first round of the tournament, so that kind of sucks. I still think both of us are headed in the right direction, which is good.”
On an opening day that offered an abundance of potential upsets in the women’s draw, Garbiñe Muguruza came through a searching examination against Donna Vekic, edging home 7-6 (7-4), 7-6 (7-5). Muguruza, the ninth seed, recovered from 4-2 down in the first set and survived a determined fightback from the 57th-ranked Croatian in the second after leading 5-3.
“A very good win,” reflected the former French Open and Wimbledon champion, who has yet to progress beyond the last 16 in New York. “It’s a slam that, historically, it’s not my strongest … I feel like I have always came super prepared and, for whatever reason, my game didn’t click. But I don’t think about that now. Every year I come, I’m like, ‘You know what? That doesn’t matter. It’s a new year. Nobody remembers, nobody cares what happened in the past.’ I just have to go through the first rounds, which I didn’t manage to do before, and then get the confidence in playing on these courts.”
Similarly relieved to make it through was Simona Halep. Handed a brutal opener against Camila Giorgi, who recently claimed the biggest title of her career at the Canadian Open, Halep showcased a much-improved serve as she shrugged off a late fightback by the Italian. Halep, who fired down six aces and won 83% of points behind her first serve, missed two match points at 6-5 but held out to win 6-4, 7-6 (7-3).
“I struggled a little bit in the end to finish the match, but I’m happy that actually I have been strong enough in the end, in the second set, to finish the match,” said Halep, the 12th seed, who missed Roland Garros, Wimbledon and the Olympics with a calf injury. “I served well also the previous tournaments, so I feel a little bit stronger there. I worked a lot in the break, when I couldn’t actually move that much because of the leg. So I did practise a lot of serves.”
Naomi Osaka, the third seed and defending champion, safely negotiated her opener against Marie Bouzkova, the 87th-ranked Czech, winning 6-4, 6-1. It was a tougher start for second seed Aryna Sabalenka, however, the Belarusian coming through in three sets against Serbia’s Nina Stojanovic, 6-4, 6-7 (4-7), 6-0.