(Cincinnati) Madison Keys, 24e world champion and winner of the event in 2019, qualified first for the semi-finals of the WTA 1000 in Cincinnati on Friday, beating 6-2, 6-4 the Kazakh Elena Rybakina (25e).
Posted at 1:35 p.m.
The American will face the Czech Petra Kvitova (28e) or Australian Ajla Tomljanovic (63e).
Like the day before against the world No.1 Iga Swiatek, Keys proved intractable to dismiss Rybakina, yet victorious at Wimbledon six weeks ago.
The latter was penalized by a faulty first ball (41% success), offering too many opportunities to break to her opponent (13) who succeeded five times, using her power (21 winning shots against 11) .