Keys knocks out No. 1 Swiatek of Western & Southern Open

Madison Keys, of the United States, returns a shot to Iga Swiatek, of Poland, during the Western & Southern Open tennis tournament, Thursday, Aug. 18, 2022, in Mason, Ohio. (Aaron Doster/AP)

MASON, Ohio — American Madison Keys upset No. 1 Iga Swiatek 6-3, 6-4 to reach the Western & Southern Open quarterfinals on Thursday.

Swiatek, a two-time Grand Slam champion, hasn’t gotten past the round of 16 in four tournaments since winning Roland Garros in June.

The win was the 24th-ranked Keys’ first in six matches against a top-ranked opponent. She had never won a set against a No. 1 player.

After dropping the first set and losing the first five games of the second, Swiatek rallied to win four straight, fighting off one match point before Keys clinched with a forehand winner to the ad court off a shot that clipped the net.

Swiatek won her first two matches against Keys, including 6-1, 6-0 earlier this year at Indian Wells.

“Obviously, there were a couple of games where I had match point,” Keys said in an on-court interview. “She beat me pretty badly the last time we played, so I was happy to get the win.”

Two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova advanced to the women’s quarterfinals with a 6-1, 4-6, 6-0 win over 2022 Wimbledon finalist and fifth-seeded Ons Jabeur.

No. 1 Daniil Medvedev advanced to the quarterfinals with a 7-5, 7-5 win over Denis Shapovalov. Medvedev is trying to shake off a second-round loss to Nick Kyrgios last week in Montreal and hone his game for the upcoming U.S. Open.

Eleventh-seeded Taylor Fritz became the first man to reach the quarterfinals, edging sixth-seeded Andrey Rublev, 6-7 (4), 6-2, 7-5.

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