Madison Keys latest Wimbledon seed to fall after grass masterclass from Laura Siegemund – The New York Times

Tennis
THE ALL ENGLAND CLUB, LONDON — Another tournament favorite and top seed is out of Wimbledon. Madison Keys, the Australian Open champion and No. 6 seed, fell to a performance of craft and mastery of the grass from Laura Siegemund, the German world No. 104. Siegemund won 6-3, 6-3, to set up a fourth-round meeting with lucky loser Solana Sierra.
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Keys then skipped her news conference, citing illness.
Siegemund, a three-time Grand Slam doubles champion, bamboozled Keys into errors from all over the court, as can happen when a powerful ball striker runs into a player capable of absorbing their pace in awkward ways. But Siegemund most notably destroyed Keys’ confidence on her second serve, at times flattening out returns, at times putting drop shot winners into court. The American won just one point on her second serve, hitting 19 across the match.
Siegemund’s record was not much better, at just 37 percent, but the German was by far the steadier, hitting just 11 unforced errors to 31 logged for Keys, even though many of them were not “unforced” at all, instead induced by Siegemund’s court craft.
Most significantly, Siegemund’s ability to keep the ball low in defense defused Keys’ attacking opportunities. Siegemund was in attack 27 percent of the time compared to 26 for Keys, according to data from IBM. But Keys won the point while in attack just 57 percent of the time, while Siegemund did so 80 percent of the time.
The defeat was reminiscent of Keys’ loss at Queen’s, the Wimbledon warmup event. She fell to Tatjana Maria, another master of slice — but more extreme than Siegemund — with Maria going on to win the title.
Keys is the 18th seed to exit the women’s draw, and her departure leaves world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka as the only top-10 seed in the top half of the draw.
(Photo: Hannah Peters / Getty Images)
James Hansen is a Senior Editor for The Athletic covering tennis. Prior to joining The Athletic in 2024, he spent just under five years as an editor at Vox Media in London. He attended Cambridge University, where he played college tennis (no relation to the American circuit), and is now a team captain at Ealing Tennis Club in west London. Follow James on Twitter @jameskhansen

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