The Keys to victory
American swings and moves, and notches up her first win in Singapore
Powerful swings and very quick feet seemed to do the trick for Madison Keys, as she swept aside Dominika Cibulkova in their Red Group encounter in the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global last night.
The 21-year-old sixth seed either sent balls whizzing through the Cibulkova defence, as the Slovak was forced to scamper all over the Indoor Stadium court in vain.
Keys, the first American to make it to the WTA Finals after the Williams sisters since 2005, won 6-1, 6-4 to keep her semi-final hopes alive.
Almost 24 hours earlier, Garbine Muguruza and Karolina Pliskova played out a marathon contest.
Czech Pliskova won 6-2, 6-7 (7-4), 7-5 in a match that ended past 1am.
Talking at her post-match press conference last night, Keys was asked if she had any thoughts of a similar encounter entering her game yesterday.
LONG
She said: "That definitely went really long and I watched a lot of it.
"I wasn't really thinking about it during my game."
Referring to her win specifically, after her opening loss to Simona Halep, Keys wore a huge smile and said: "That was a little bit better than the first round.
"Definitely really happy with how I kind of turned things around.
"I think I did a lot of things a lot better."
Addressing her loss, Cibulkova said: "I just couldn't get into the rhythm. It was one of those days when she was playing really good and I was fighting myself on the return."
Although she has lost her two opening matches, Cibulkova still has a chance of advancing if she beats Halep in their final group match tomorrow.
"It's frustrating, of course, because I lost two matches that I wished I could win, but I still have a third chance," Cibulkova said.
"It's a big challenge for me. It's my first time playing here. But I can still go into the semi-finals."
That was a little bit better than the first round. Definitely really happy with how I kind of turned things around.
— Madison Keys on beating Dominika Cibulkova
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