WTA 500
Madison Keys is a professional tennis player, born in Illinois in 1995.
Having started playing tennis as a young girl after seeing Venus Williams on television, she and her family relocated to Florida to enable to dedicate more time to the sport. As a junior, Keys won the junior draw of the prestigious Orange Bowl tournament, and soon embarked on a professional career.
Keys' WTA tour debut came aged just 14, in a win against a then-top-100 player, making the American one of the youngest WTA match winners in history. Keys also recorded a win over Serena Williams in the World TeamTennis franchise, again aged only 14. Within 2 years, Keys had debuted at the US Open at 16, cementing her place as one of the rising stars of women's tennis.
By 2013, Keys was appearing more consistently at WTA-level events, and jumped 100 places to finish the year inside the WTA top-50. In 2014 she won her first WTA title, defeating Angelique Kerber in the final of the Eastbourne International. Keys' stock continued to rise, and in 2015 she reached the semifinals of the US Open, defeating her idol Venus Williams, but losing to her sister, Serena. The following year Keys broke into the top-10 for the first time, and as a result qualified for the WTA Finals. Having established herself as a Grand Slam contender, and a player capable of beating the best in the world, Keys recorded strong runs at the 2017 US Open, where she lost in the final to Sloane Stephens, and at Roland-Garros in 2018, where she reached the semifinals. Keys also reached the US Open semifinals in 2018; her loss to Naomi Osaka meant she had lost to the eventual winner in 2 consecutive editions of the tournament.
The 2019 season saw Keys collect her first WTA 1000 title, though she then struggled for form throughout the rest of the year, and the following 2020 season. In 2021 Keys fell out of the WTA top-50, but by 2022 she had returned to the upper echelons of the singles rankings after reaching the semifinals of the Australian Open.
Madison Keys is well-known for her powerful serve, a skill she has had she was a young player, and which is now one of the fastest on the WTA tour. Her groundstrokes are similarly strong on both the forehand and backhand side, though it is her forehand which her opponents usually fear most, with Keys able to generate excellent pace on the ball from far back in the court. Indeed, Keys rarely approaches the net, and prefers to dictate from the baseline.
This is our second visit to the tournament (2023/2026) and again we had a wonderful visit:
- Parking easy to find and shuttle service was quick and easy - very little waiting
- Volunteers plentiful, cheerful and helpful. Again, very little entry waiting, helpful finding seats
- Plenty of food options, but VERY expensive at Verde - $73 lunch for two - wrap, salad, cookie, 1 drink
- Appreciate the bottle filling option at the water fountains
- Phone app great - easy
- Weather perfect - glad to know you're on good terms with Mother Nature
- Like the post-match interviewer - does a great job of getting personality out of the contestants
Recommendations:
- In the Big Tent - would love to see better use of all four sides of the video cylinder - often only 1 or 2 screens actually showing matches. Would be very helpful if the screens could be elevated as much as possible for better visibility
- Wishing there were a few more opportunities to "mix" with the players, but not quite sure how to make that happen that would satisfy them. Enjoyed the after-match interviews buy TCLive, but the players have their backs to the crowd . . .
- Wish there was a way to expand the seating on Court 3 - doubles matches were slammed full on Tuesday - not sure how that worked out the rest of the
One silly question:
- Was there ANY plan or system for installing the various colored seats in the stadium - amazing how completely random the color scheme was - spent dead time pondering . . .
Great experience again. Wish there were more shaded seats . . .
It was great! Highly recommend the Club tickets. All the staff were friendly and helpful.
What a tournament! We had a great time.
This was my fourth time attending COCO. I love this tournament!
my friend and I enjoyed the entire experience, the tennis was fantastic -- my only 2 caveats are WEAK wi-fi (astonishing given Larry Ellison is the person in charge) and PEPSI instead of COKE, which killed me.
