Madison Keys wins Cincy 2019

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Madison Keys had only won a single match in the two months previous to Cincinnati and was number 18 in the world.

But she turned things around all week. Falling behind 1-3, she rallied to beat Svetlana Kuznetsova 7-5, 7-6 (5) in the Western and Southern Open final, the biggest title of her career.

“If you told me a week ago this was where I would be, I would have laughed in your face,” Keys said after the match near Mason, Ohio.

Keys, age 24, is a threat to win the US Open, where she lost a quick final to Sloane Stephens in 2017 and a competitive semi-final last year to Naomi Osaka.

Keys, who lost the Rome 2016 final to Serena Williams, has now won five titles in her career: Eastbourne 2014, Birmingham 2016, Stanford 2017, Charleston 2019 and Cincinnati 2019.

Keys moves up 8 to number 10 in the new WTA rankings. Osaka is still number one, only 105 and 291 points ahead of Ash Barty and Karolina Pliskova.

The top 20 includes five women under age 21: Naomi, Aryna Sabalenka, Bianca Andreescu, Marketa Vondrousova and Sofia Kenin. 

(words and images copyright Christopher Johnson Globalite Media all rights reserved)