The 7th-seeded Madison Keys (USA) qualified for the quarter-finals of the WTA 500 Mubadala Citi DC Open in Washington, USA, with a prize pool of 780,637 USD. The American tennis played defeated her compatriot Jennifer Brady by 2-0 (6:4, 6:0) in 78 minutes and advanced ahead in the prestigious tournament.
The first set started with exchange of breaks, but Madison Keys took a lead by 3:1 after breaking the serve of her opponent for a second time. The set was running in her favor and she even received two set points in the 8th game at 15-40 on the serve of Jennifer Brady. However, Jennifer Brady stayed in the set after winning her serve and even made a break in the 9th game. Thus, she served to stay in the set, but the game started terribly at 0-40, which gave new 3 set points to Madison Keys, who succeeded to score the second and thus closed the set at 6:4.
After the dramatic loss in the first set, Jennifer Brady did not gave any resistance in the second set. Thus, Madison Keys won the next 6 games and closed the set at 6:0.
In the next round, Madison Keys will face the winner between the 4th-seeded Maria Sakkari (Greece) and Leylah Fernandez (Canada).
The last year’s champion Liudmila Samsonova (Russia) also advanced to the quarter-finals after eliminating Sorana Cirstea (Romania) by 2-0 (€:1, 6:3). In the next round, she will face the winner between the 2nd-seeded Caroline Garcia (France) and Marta Kostyuk (Ukraine).
The 3rd-seeded Cori Coco Gauff (USA) also advanced to the quarter-finals after eliminating her compatriot Hailey Baptiste by 2-0 (6:1, 6:4). In the next round, she will face the Tokyo 2020 Olympics champion Belinda Bencic (Switzerland).
