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In 2013, Sloane Stephens announced herself on the big stage when she upset Serena Williams en route to reaching her first Grand Slam semi-final at the Australian Open. Last year, Eugenie Bouchard did the same, defeating Ana Ivanovic in the quarter-finals before losing to eventual champion Li Na in the semi-finals.
This year, the young player making the big noise is 19-year-old American prodigy Madison Keys, who has advanced to the fourth round of a Grand Slam tournament for the first time in her career.
Under the watchful eye of retired three-time Grand Slam champion Lindsay Davenport, Keys upset reigning Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova in straight sets on Saturday night to achieve her best result at a Grand Slam event to date.
Keys produced an impressive array of shot making, most ending in winners, with a break late in each set allowing her to serve them out with ease as Kvitova became the fourth women’s top 10 seed to depart the Australian Open in the first week.
Keys will start favourite to defeat her namesake, Madison Brengle, on Monday and reach the quarter-finals of a Grand Slam tournament for the first time, where another American, Venus Williams, or Polish sixth seed Agnieszka Radwanska will await.
Knock off one of those two and then world number one Serena Williams will very likely await in the semi-finals. If this showdown eventuates, it will be their first career meeting at professional level.
Keys had a breakout season last year, reaching a career high ranking of 27 and winning her first career title in Eastbourne. En route to this title she defeated former world number one Jelena Jankovic and current top 10 player Angelique Kerber.
But her achievements aren’t limited to that title. In 2009, at the age of 14, she represented the Philadelphia Freedoms in World Team Tennis and defeated Serena Williams, who had just won her third Wimbledon title, by a scoreline of 5-1 in the women’s singles rubber.
She is also one of the youngest ever players to win a main draw match on the WTA Tour, at 14 years and 48 days. It happened on her professional debut when she defeated Russia’s Alla Kurdyavtseva in straight sets in the first round before losing to Nadia Petrova in the next round.
With her 20th birthday fast approaching, Keys is one of the many players from America who many tennis fans from the country will embrace once the Williams sisters retire from the game in the coming years.
As well as Keys, there are also the likes of Sloane Stephens, Coco Vandeweghe, Alison Riske, Lauren Davis, Christina McHale and Varvara Lepchenko, each of whom have had their highs and lows over the course of their careers.
Stephens of course reached the semi-finals of the Australian Open two years ago, where she upset Serena Williams in the quarter-finals before losing to then-world number one, defending and eventual champion Victoria Azarenka in controversial circumstances in the last four.
Unfortunately she hasn’t been able to reach the same heights since, in fact, she lost to Azarenka in the first round of this year’s Open and appears set to drop out of the world’s top 40 when the rankings are updated at the end of the tournament.
Some of the other players have had their moments at the other major events: Alison Riske upset Petra Kvitova at the 2013 US Open, Vandeweghe defeated Stosur here at the Australian Open and McHale is currently battling her way back up the rankings after being grounded by a bout of mononucleosis.
Speaking of McHale, the 22-year-old overcame a sickening moment midway through the final set of her match against Stephanie Foretz, where she appeared to throw up at one end of the court, to win her first round match with the final set lasting 18 games.
And who could forget the sensation that is CiCi Bellis, who at the US Open last year upset Australian Open runner-up Dominika Cibulkova in three sets in her professional level debut before losing to Zarina Diyas in her next match.
Still too young and lowly-ranked to play the major tournaments elsewhere, Bellis is currently playing at a $25,000 ITF tournament way back home at Daytona Beach.
And so, when the Williams sisters eventually bow out of the game, there will be an exciting new generation of American female tennis players to watch out for in the coming years.
However, Madison Keys will be the one to watch out for this year, not just at the Australian Open but also at the other tournaments. If she can continue on her impressive surge, then she could become the latest young prodigy to crack the world’s top 10 later this year.
That said, no top player would want to draw this name at any of the remaining three Grand Slam tournaments this year.
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