At 43, Venus Williams hasn’t lost her stubbornness. The American fought until the very end, saving eight match points, but had to admit defeat in two sets of 6-2 and 7-5 against Madison Keys on Monday night.
Sunday afternoon, in a press conference, Venus Williams said to train “until failure”. “That kind of intensity is a lot, but it’s necessary,” she told us. A little over 24 hours later, seeing her go to the center court of the IGA stadium for this first round duel, we understood a little what she meant.
The veteran, dressed all in red for her first game in Montreal in five years, never gave up. At 5-4 Keys in the second set, she saved seven match points to then achieve her first break in the duel. The crowd, which only had eyes for her, was delighted. Two games later, at 6-5 Keys, she saved another.
“Go, Venus!” chanted supporters in the stands. Each time the great athlete refused to end the duel, the crowd cheered and begged for more. We felt in Williams the will to respond to his request.
The 9th match point was finally the good one for Keys, who thus won the most anticipated duel of this first day of the main draw of the National Bank Open.
We knew that this duel was more symbolic than competitive, the gap in the ranking between the two players being 512 ranks, but it was not uninteresting, even if it was played under a cloudy sky. After the almost incessant rain in the afternoon, Williams and Keys were able to play their duel of 1h 53min on a nice dry ground.
In the first round, Keys quickly appeared more focused and in better possession of her means than her opponent. The 28-year-old Illinoisan took the lead by breaking in the first game.
The 43-year-old had a great chance to take the lead as she led 3-2 in the second set; she came back to 40-40, but she was never able to claim the advantage to break her opponent. Keys went there from a break of serve in the next game.
At 6-5 in the second set, Keys, visibly bothered by pain whose nature is unknown, had to receive treatment for several minutes. The Montreal crowd took advantage of this waiting time to go there with a long wave in the stands. The 15th racket in the world finally returned to play to end the match.
Williams double faulted six times and won just 37.5% of his second serves in the loss. Keys had five aces and saved three break points.
Neither player met the media after the clash. Keys could not tell us in person, but we guess that this fourth career victory against her idol will be enough to motivate her for the rest of her career in Montreal. She will face Italian Jasmine Paolini in the second round.
