By Amy Tennery
NEW YORK, Sept 1 (Reuters) – American Madison Keys overcame early jitters to down Russian Alina Korneeva 7-5 6-4 in the first round of the U.S. Open on Tuesday, exorcising the demons of her early exit a year ago.
Just months after winning her first Grand Slam title at the 2025 Australian Open, Keys crashed out in the first round at Flushing Meadows after being overcome by debilitating nerves.
But Keys felt more at home this time around – improving her first-serve percentage from 48% in the first set to nearly 70% in the second. She will next meet either Czech Lucie Havlickova or Hungarian Anna Bondar.
“Today is obviously tough, because you go back on the court where you had a really tough loss, and to go back out and play another first round, it’s always hard,” said the 2017 U.S. Open runner-up. “To have that kind of lingering memory is tough.”
Keys looked at first as though she would cruise through the match on Arthur Ashe Stadium as she won the first three games but the Russian broke back in the fifth when Keys hit a forehand shot wildly out of bounds.
After trading breaks again, Keys broke her opponent on her third set point with a fine backhand strike and improved her level across the board in a competitive second set.
Down 4-2 in the second set, Korneeva came out on top following a nifty cat-and-mouse exchange near the net to break back but her relief was short-lived.
She was left scrambling for a backhand shot just out of reach as she dropped serve again in the eighth game.
Keys handed her opponent the break with a handful of mistakes in the ninth but regained her composure to clinch it in the next game with one of her signature forehand strikes.
The 24th-ranked Keys has long been a staple of Flushing Meadows and is competing in the year’s final major for a 15th time. But the tenure has done little to wipe out the nerves seen across New York’s sprawling tennis campus.
“You have a week, everyone is excited to be here, and then as the days are slowly getting closer to first rounds, rackets are maybe getting a little slippery, you can hear more yelling happening, and you can kind of feel the tension,” said Keys, who had reached at least the semi-finals on three occasions.
“The buildup is always so hard.”
(Reporting by Amy Tennery in New York, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
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