Tennis-Keys battles past Kenin to reach French Open fourth round

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By Shrivathsa Sridhar

PARIS (Reuters) -Madison Keys sharpened up after a sluggish start to save three matchpoints and battle past Sofia Kenin 4-6 6-3 7-5 in an all-American meeting between Grand Slam champions to reach the French Open fourth round on Saturday.

Victory meant the 30-year-old Australian Open champion became the oldest woman to win 10 straight Grand Slam singles matches since Serena Williams’ 16 match-winning streak between the Australian Open in 2017 and Wimbledon the following year.

“That was a great experience. It was an amazing atmosphere with so much support here,” Keys said.

“I was letting her (Kenin) dictate a bit too much so I took a few steps back on the rallies to give myself space to swing and hit and move her around on her serve.

“Yeah, it’s great to see another day.”

Kenin, who reached the 2020 French Open final after winning the Australian Open that year, broke reigning Melbourne champion Keys in the seventh game and staved off a late comeback attempt from her opponent to hold for the opening set.

The world number 30 earned her only win over Keys in four previous meetings by beating her on clay in Rome six years ago and she needed all her experience on the slowest surface to remain in touch in a tight second set.

Former semi-finalist Keys pulled away, however, and levelled the match at a set apiece but quickly found herself a break down in the decider after hitting a backhand into the net.

Kenin then endured some frustrating moments on serve as she squandered a 0-3 lead before Keys saved three match points in a tense 10th game and broke again, before holding to prevail for a memorable win amid huge roars on Court Suzanne Lenglen.

Up next for Keys is another compatriot in Hailey Baptiste.

(Reporting by Shrivathsa Sridhar in ParisEditing by Toby Davis)