Keys holds off Aussie Open champ Kenin at Charleston

WASHINGTON: Madison Keys made it through another tense finish on Saturday night, letting one match point slip before finishing off Australian Open champion Sofia Kenin 6-3, 5-7 10-2 in the women’s tennis event in Charleston, South Carolina.

Keys, who would have been defending her 2019 Charleston WTA title earlier this year if the coronavirus pandemic hadn’t halted play on the women’s tennis tour, had overcome a late lapse on Thursday in a 6-1, 6-7 (6/8), 10-4 victory over fellow American Caroline Dolehide.

She said the tight finishes in the 16-player team event, being played with strict social distancing protocols and with no spectators, would stand her in good stead when the WTA resumes in Palermo on August 3. She was up two breaks at 4-0 in the second set, and held a match point against Kenin’s serve in the ninth game that she couldn’t convert. Keys dropped her next two service games but regrouped in the 10-point tiebreaker, saying she was “kind of giving myself a little bit of grace, knowing that I don’t have those big points under my belt right now.