US Open Women's final: Sloane Stephens v Madison Keys

Sloane Stephens beats Madison Keys 6-3, 6-0


Sloane Stephens won the match of her life here, overpowering her friend and compatriot Madison Keys in 61 minutes in front of an American audience who had come to acclaim a home winner, but who were ultimately short-changed.

Her performance in constructing a 6-3, 6-0 win on a packed Arthur Ashe court crowned a comeback to savour, if not a final to remember as a classic.

Neither had won a slam; neither had been to a slam final. This has happened only seven times in the Open era, and twice here. Into such uncharted territory they wandered, ambitious but wary. What they did know was each other and each other’s tennis, and they shared the support of their home crowd pretty much down the middle, because both brought with them a history of struggle.

In that regard, Stephens had a marginally better record against Americans, 8-2 to 7-2, and each of them added to that tally in the semi-finals, with Stephens’s finish to eject Venus Williams near to awesome, while Keys embarrassed CoCo Vandeweghe to the point of tears for the loss of only three games.

While no pair of finalists have ever brought a lower combined ranking to a women’s slam decider, 99 (made up of 16 by Keys and 83 by Stephens; only Chris O’Neill, who won the 1978 Australian open with a 111 ranking, has been a bigger outsider), they were better than that. During the fortnight, they proved their pedigree and their commitment. The only guarantee was that there would be a fourth different slam champion in the same year, which hasn’t happened since 2014.

Stephens, perhaps unexpectedly against the bigger serve of Keys, struck first, breaking after quarter of an hour, then held. The nerves seemed to be with the favourite.

The expectations on Stephens were, perhaps, not as great, given she has come from nowhere to make the final. Returning from 11 months away after foot surgery, she went out in the first round at Wimbledon. At the start of the US Open series of matches she was ranked 957 in the world; after another early loss in Washington, she has roared through this championships like a night train, her six wins equal to the number she had won in her previous six slam appearances combined.

She will be back in the top 25 on Monday, a remarkable leap of more than 900 ranking places in a little over a month.

Keys was doing her best to thwart her charge, bossing the net but not finding enough consistency at the back of the court. After 25 minutes she was serving to stay in the set, and still struggled for rhythm against Stephens’s cleanly hit forehand. A backhand hit the Keys baseline for set point, but she dumped a lazy backhand for deuce, only her second unforced error of the match, and a needlessly careless one.

Keys repaired the damage, advancing inside the court and finally striking the ball with ease rather than anxiety. The net got in the way for a second deuce point, and a stray backhand gave Stephens another opportunity to take the set. It was hers with the second break, when Keys hit long, a disappointing frame after she seemed to reach such a commanding peak against Vandeweghe two days previously.

Stephens showed so much promise early in her career that it was odd to see her pitched into such a despond, poor form preceding her injury. She is two years younger than Keys at 22, but fresher perhaps. She has the hunger back.

Now, with a set in the bank against a friend and rival who had widened the gap between them in her long absence, she had to stay tough, to forget sentiment and the occasion. Focus is one of the most apt cliches in sport and Stephens looked to be immersed in it as she set about pressing home her advantage in the second set.

It wasn’t going to be easy. She held through deuce at the start of the second set and all the pressure was on Keys, behind in the serving cycle. Would caution cause her to seize up, or would she trust her talent? The latter was obviously the better option, although she was still fighting her own game.

She has had her own health problems, of course, coming through two wrist surgeries in the past year, and that is an area of the delivery system in tennis that has brought many players to grief, including Juan Martín del Potro, who admitted after losing his semi-final to Rafael Nadal that, although he is improving rapidly, he is not “quite there” yet in giving full vent to his power.

Stephens broke again with a startling cross-court forehand that left Keys flapping at the air. It did not look good for her.

Stephens, understandably eager to get the job done leading a set and 2-0 up, began to rush the points a little, but she still looked calmer than her opponent. The match began to slip away from Keys at a worrying rate. When Keys overcooked her reply to a 67mph serve letting Stephens get away to 3-0, her prospects nose-dived.

Stephens broke her hapless opponent again for 4-0 and the expectation drained from the stadium. Keys squandered three break points in the fifth game and sobbed into her towel on the changeover, before Stephens put her out of her misery, breaking for a fifth and final time despite a desperate, doomed struggle by the heartbroken Keys. Stephens saved two match points but her final forehand slid sadly into the net, and it was done.