Tennis News

Madison Keys has powered her way into the Aegon Classic Birmingham final behind a strong serve that is more dangerous on grass. SAP Tennis Analytics for Coaches shows how playing on grass benefits the Keys service game.

In 14 clay court matches this season, Keys hit a total of 53 aces. This week in Birmingham, she’s already hit 33 aces in just four matches. That’s an average 8.2 per match compared to 3.9 per match for the season coming into this week.

Saturday’s semifinal win, which will propel Keys into the Top 10 for the first time in her career, was a good example of how Keys can use her serve to take control of a match.

Keys fell behind in her semifinal against Carla Suárez Navarro, losing the first set 3-6 while winning just 64% of her service points.

In the second set, the Keys serve was dominant. She won 91% of her service points, 20 of 22. The SAP Coaches View shows that Keys was particularly effective serving to the ad court, getting all 10 of her first serves in, and hitting all three of her aces in the set to that side.

Keys won that second set 6-3, then prevailed in the third set tie-break as she won 76% of her service points in the final set.

Grass courts have been better for the Keys serve historically. In the last two years, Keys has won 66% of her service points on the surface, compared to her overall average of just 61% in those two seasons.

The SAP Coaches View combines scoring information direct from the chair umpire with tracking data from HawkEye to allow for an in depth look at five different aspects of a match. Each tracking option can be filtered to narrow the focus to specific situations within a match, such as break points. This information is available directly to coaches in real-time during a match on their SAP tablet and also available to them online after matches.

“Service” tracking shows the landing point for all serves. The display differentiates between first serves, second serves and aces. Additional data on the screen shows the percentage of overall service points won as well as looking specifically at first and second serves.

These serving statistics will be continue to be key for Keys as she looks to ace her test in Sunday’s final against Barbora Strycova.

Aegon Classic Birmingham, Ann Jones Centre Court, 1.30pm

Watch live action from Sunday’s Birmingham final on WTA Live powered by TennisTV!

[7] Madison Keys (USA #16) vs. Barbora Strycova (CZE #30)
Head-to-head: Keys leads 2-1
Final Fact: Keys has served 33 aces in her four matches in Birmingham, compared with the 53 she hit in the entire clay court season (14 matches).

In her post-match press conference following an impressive semifinal win over the in-form CoCo Vandeweghe, Barbora Strycova was typically forthcoming about the challenge awaiting her in the final.

Madison Keys is the opponent. And a familiar one at that; the pair met twice during the clay court season, Keys prevailing first in Madrid, then again in a far tighter encounter in Rome.

“I go into that match to, I don’t want to say with nothing to lose, but it’s a final. It can change many things. It’s on grass and I like to play on grass. It’s going to be a totally different match,” Strycova said. “The last match in Rome was really tough one. I lost 6-3 in the third.

“But she’s a great player. I have to bring some good tennis.”

Keys took the latest step on her path to greatness on Saturday, confirming her ascension to the Top 10 by overcoming a rocky start to defeat Carla Suárez Navarro. It was not her only moment of anxiety en route to the final either; in the previous round she trailed by a set and a break to Jelena Ostapenko.

A devastating serve, thudding groundstrokes off either wing and the desire to move up the court at any opportunity make the American’s game ideally suited to grass – her only previous title came on the surface, two years ago in Eastbourne.

Unsurprisingly, she is not backwards in coming forwards on her love of the lawns: “This is the only surface that I have a title on. Obviously, it’s one of my favorites. It definitely suits my game. I feel pretty comfortable playing on it. Hopefully, I can win a couple more tournaments on this. I would love to do well at Wimbledon whenever I can.

“I’m not going to sit here and say I’m going to win Wimbledon, but obviously, I’d really like to!”

While Keys has stuttered at time in the past two rounds, Strycova has dropped just one set all week. However, the at time biblical rain England’s second city has been subjected to this week has ensured her path to the finals – alongside Karolina Pliskova she is also still in the hunt for the doubles title – has been far from straightforward. Indeed, over the past two days she has played five matches, spending a fraction under seven hours on court.  

Road To The Final
Madison Keys
First Round: d. Timea Babos, 76(3) 64 (1:27)
Second Round: d. [Q] Tamira Paszek, 61 63 (0:58)
Quarterfinals: d. Jelena Ostapenko, 67(1) 64 62 (1:59)
Semifinals: d. [6] Carla Suárez Navarro, 36 63 76(3) (1:42)

Barbora Strycova
First Round: d. [8] Karolina Pliskova, 64 76(7) (2:02)
Second Round: d. Heather Watson, 75 64 (1:40)
Quarterfinals: d. Tsvetana Pironkova, 62 75 (1:35)
Semifinals: d. CoCo Vandeweghe, 26 64 63 (2:10)

October was packed with plenty of amazing shots – we narrowed it down to the five best.

In the end, it was Angelique Kerber, who played an incredble squash shot against perennial Shot Of The Month winner Agnieszka Radwanska in the semifinals of the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global. Undefeated en route to the championship match, the World No.1 used her uncanny ability to turn defense into offense, taking out the defending champion in straight sets.

Click here to watch all of October’s finalists.

Final Results for October’s WTA Shot Of The Month

1. Angelique Kerber (74%)
2. Agnieszka Radwanska (11%)
3. Dominika Cibulkova  (6%)
3. Daria Gavrilova (6%)
5. Madison Keys (3%)

2016 WTA Shot of the Month Winners

January: Caroline Wozniacki
February: Agnieszka Radwanska
March: Agnieszka Radwanska
April: Monica Niculescu
May: Simona Halep
June: Agnieszka Radwanska
July: Simona Halep
August: Agnieszka Radwanska
September: Kirsten Flipkens

How it works:

Five shots are selected by wtatennis.com
Winner is then determined by a fan vote on wtatennis.com