Taking bigger cracks at returns, Keys said, was pivotal to taking the match out of Krunic’s hands.
“I want to be the one that’s dictating points and the one that’s not running as much,” Keys said. “That was the biggest adjustment I had to make.”
Naomi Osaka, seeded 20th, had to make few adjustments in her third-round win, rolling past Aliaksandra Sasnovich, 6-0, 6-0. The match was even more lopsided than the score line might suggest. Sasnovich won only 17 total points, including the first three points of the match, on Osaka’s serve.
“From that moment, I was just thinking that I’m going to try to make as many shots as possible,” Osaka said. “I ended up winning that game. For some reason, my momentum kept going.”
Osaka, an aggressive, often inconsistent player, hit just three unforced errors in the match.
Sabalenka hit only three unforced errors in the second set, when she beat Kvitova in just 25 minutes after a first set that took a full hour. Sabalenka, who won her first WTA title last week at the Connecticut Open, is playing the U.S. Open main draw for the first time. She was ranked outside the top 100 at this time last year.
Kvitova said she thought the string of losses at Armstrong were a coincidence, and she praised the “cute” stadium.
“It’s comfy and nice,” she said.
Two more top-10 women lost on Saturday away from Armstrong. On Court 17, 30th-seeded Carla Suárez Navarro beat sixth-seeded Caroline Garcia, 5-7, 6-4, 7-6 (4).
Suarez Navarro will next face 22nd-seeded Maria Sharapova, who defeated No. 10 Jelena Ostapenko, 6-3, 6-2, at Ashe.
Source : NYtimes
