Madison has the Keys to third round

One of two remaining Aussie girls in the draw, Casey Dellacqua had the tough task of defeating American Madison Keys in the second round.  Madison's career ascension had stalled somewhat and she came into the tournament unseeded, but even with Casey seeded, the match appeared even on paper.

Casey reaped the benefit of some quality shot making in the opening service game from Keys and she was determined to retain the initiative.  A double fault in her first service game was more than outweighed by four unforced errors from Keys, making the break consolidation simple.

Madison made the scoreboard in the third game, successfully attacking the backhand of the Australian and she had a break point in the fourth after some loose tennis from Casey.  However, two poor backhands released the crowd favourite from US custody and she held for 3-1.

Some great tennis in game five featured ground strokes from both girls of high class, only to be spoilt by the final two points which Madison gave away with poor execution under little pressure.  A second loss of serve saw her lagging 1-4 and with eyes more for the second set.

Games followed the servers script for the next couple of games and Casey had 5-2, which she impatiently turned into a set win 6-2 thanks to a backhand winner and forcing shots to both sides producing American errors.

Then the world turned completely upside down.

Madison Keys, who had been troubled by the left handers serve at the beginning of the match, had progressively become comfortable with it.  Now she treated it like cannon fodder, and won several points directly on return of serve in addition to those created by the quality of return.

Casey was in shock, all of a sudden unable to manufacture enough good tennis for a single game to be credited in her favour.  Madison hit 16 winners with the same number of unforced errors while Casey committed 12 unforced mistakes but could only manage 3 clear winners.  The change in the match was remarkable, the set score 6-1 to Keys.

Set three began with hope that the vacation taken by Casey was complete and that she would return to play her part in the final semester.

If she did it wasn't to play tennis - the third set replicated the second and again Casey managed just a single game.  Madison needed to send down fourteen serves, of which she won twelve points.  Casey on the other hand served 30 and won only 12 of those points.  

In emphatic fashion, Madison denied the Keys to Casey Dellacqua's third round, winning 2-6 6-1 6-1.