US Open 2017: Sloane Stephens-Madison Keys final heralds glorious new era for American tennis

Sloane Stephens calls it the ‘neutraliser’.

That she will face a fellow American and first-time Grand Slam finalist — Madison Keys — across the net in Saturday’s US Open final. There will be nerves to conquer and glory to win as they take centre stage in front of their home crowd, which has noisily rallied behind them throughout the tournament.

As contrasting as their games and their semi-final matches turned out to be, Stephens and Keys have walked similar paths to get to this high ground. Both have been burdened with expectations and questions about who will take the baton once Venus and Serena Williams are ready to give it up. They have both been quick off the blocks — Keys, in fact, is one of the youngest to win a WTA match at 14 years. Stephens, 24, has been preparing for the big stage for the past five years. Their best at Grand Slams is the semi-final at the Australian Open — Stephens in 2013 and the 22-year-old Keys in 2015.

But injuries stalled both of them in their tracks. Stephens withdrew from the US Open last year with a foot injury and had to undergo a surgery. She watched this year’s Australian Open from her couch with her left foot still in the cast. Keys, meanwhile, had surgery on her left wrist in December and was in a lengthy rehab as well.

“I think we both just texted each other and said: ‘This really sucks,’” Keys said after a crushing 6-1, 6-2 win over CoCo Vandeweghe in the semi-final on Thursday. “From then on, I have always been talking to her and texting her, keeping in touch. I think we have really helped each other. I think we have definitely known what each other was going through throughout the year. Who would have thought in Australia that Sloane and I would be the finalists at the US Open? Neither one of us were playing at the time, both just having had surgeries. It’s amazing.”

And a bit crazy. With the resident queen of women’s tennis, Serena Williams, missing it has been open season in New York. The women’s draw lost 17 seeded players in the first two rounds, and only two of the top-10 (Venus and World No 1 Karolina Pliskova) made it to the final eight. While Keys and Stephens have been knocking on the door for a while, no one really expected World No 16 and 83 respectively to break through into the finals. Especially when they had a combined Grand Slam tally of two wins and three losses this year.

Stephens made her Grand Slam return at Wimbledon, and suffered a first round loss. Despite having slipped to 957 in the ranking charts though, Stephens had a decent warm-up to the year’s last Slam. She made the semi-finals in back-to-back WTA tournaments in Toronto and Cincinnati. Her foot speed is her biggest strength, and Stephens has used it to great effect, tracking down impossible shots, to take a big stride forward in her career.

“I was going to have to play my way into shape starting from Wimbledon because I obviously couldn’t run that much. I was on a walking boot like a month before I played Wimbledon,” the 24-year-old said. “I knew I was going to have to play my way into shape, and I think I’ve done that pretty well. I got a lot of matches in. I’ve run a lot. I’ve played a couple of three-setters. So, yeah, I think my movement is probably what’s kind of kept me in some of these matches, shockingly.”

The American has learnt dive into challenges feet first. Like she did against Venus in the semi-final. At 30-30, 4-5 in the deciding third set, she met a ball running away from her and converted it into a backhand down-the-line pass. In the next game, she tricked the graceful Venus with a perfectly placed lob and took the momentum all the way to a 6-1, 0-6, 7-5 victory. Her ability to turn defence into offence has been almost Djokovic-esque this time around.

And good friend Keys possibly presents the biggest challenge to her doggedness. The 22-year-old seemed to have found her hitting zone as she blew past fellow American Vandeweghe in the semi-final. In a match that lasted only 66 minutes, Keys managed to blast 25 winners against her harrowed opponent and made only nine unforced errors.

“It was one of those days where I came out and I was kind of in a zone, and I just forced myself to stay there,” she said. Keys is known to blow hot and blow cold, going from brilliant to reckless within a few minutes and go wobbly on the serve. But the American has gritted out tough three-set wins over Elena Vesnina in the fourth round and Elina Svitolina in the quarter-final to earn her place. She seems to road with confidence with the crowd behind her back and has made the night-matches into her favoured battlefield. Her match against Vesnina went on till 1:45 am, making it the second latest finish after Keys had beaten Alison Riske in the first round last year with the match ending at 1:48 am.

In the final, the home crowd will be torn over whom to cheer for in this classic contest between the puncher and the counter-puncher. After all, it is for the first time in 15 years that the US Open will witness an all-American final. Poignantly, it comes 60 years after Althea Gibson, the first woman of colour to win a Grand Slam title, won her first US Open title. Both, Keys and Stephens, would be hoping to continue in her footsteps.