Yesterday, a ray of sunlight broke through the gloom in which U.S. tennis has been mired lately: Madison Keys and CoCo Vandeweghe won the final warm-up tournaments before the start of Wimbledon. It was the first time a brace of American women won tournaments in the same week since Venus Williams and Monica Seles in 2002.
Nobody was there to take a crossing ball from Cristiano Ronaldo to spoil their greatest moments at the last second, either.
Keys won Eastbourne and Vandeweghe prevailed in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, each their first WTA title, fueling hopes at home that the U.S. won’t have to endure another painful Wimbledon—at least not in the women’s singles. The men write a different story, but you know what they say: Every silver lining has a dark cloud.
Keys, who is just 19, had two high-quality wins in Eastbourne: A first-round conquest of No. 3 seed Jelena Jankovic (6-3, 6-3), and a final triumph over No. 5 seed Angelique Kerber (6-3, 3-6, 7-5). Given that Keys is the newly named “Sports Illustrated Kids Special Correspondent,” you can bet that a lot of kids are going to be drilling holes in the garage door, hoping to serve like her.
Vandeweghe, 22, can’t match Keys’ journalistic bona fides on Fleet Street or Sesame Street, but she’s one of the few women on the tour who can match her, bomb for bomb, down the T or out wide. In fact, one of the more encouraging things here is that neither of these women is your typical, up-and-coming, baseline-hugging pro, subject to familiar limitations of power and pace.
Each of these young ladies can take a match out of the hands of her opponent; each has the ability to dictate the terms of surrender. The U.S. has been fighting a losing battle in international tennis; even the redoubtable Serena Williams has been struggling of late. So it’s particularly heartening for the domestic audience to see that the nation won’t be relying on grapeshot or the traditional 12-pounder Napoleons, but rolling out big cannons.
To wit: Keys belted a shiver-inducing 60 winners, including 17 aces, in her last win. She played with authority. Kerber is a solid baseliner, good at counter-punching and causing all manner of deviltry with she her dominant, left hand. Yet Keys kept her handcuffed for long portions of the match and kept the points so short that the match—which ended 7-5 in the third—lasted under two hours.
Rafa and Nole, take note.