A star on the rise

We reach the halfway point of Black Tennis Month today, on Valentine's Day, and I would like to once reiterate how enjoyable this whole thing has been, and how grateful I am to each and every person who has taken a little bit of time out of their day to read these profiles. We're gonna keep it rolling, too - I of course have something planned for every single day of February. Today we are going to take a look at a woman who is one of the best tennis players in the world at present, even despite wrist surgery that caused her to miss the Australian Open - she's still in the world's top 10 and well on her way to being the next big thing in American tennis (if you ask me, anyway).

Madison Keys was born on February 17th, 1995 (Hey! She's gonna be the birthday girl soon!) in Rock Island, Illinois. When she was four years old, she watched [name redacted] playing at Wimbledon one year and loved both her tennis playing and especially her dress; her parents said that they would buy her a tennis outfit if she actually gave the sport a fair shot. She did, and took to it quite well; eventually at age 10, she and her family left Illinois and moved to Florida to train at the Evert Tennis Academy. By the time she was 14, she was already good enough that she was playing the occasional event on the professional tour; in fact, in 2009, she played [younger sister of the earlier redacted name] in a World Team Tennis event, and, in a truncated set, not only beat her, but pretty handily too, 5-1. She had some success on the junior circuit, reaching a rank of #16 overall, but her potential as a professional was already so great that that she didn't spend much time there; frankly, she didn't NEED to.

It's been a pretty steady ascent for Madison to the highest ranks of women's tennis ever since she turned pro; in 2012, she was already in the world's top 150 at the age of 17, winning two titles on the Challenger circuit. The following year, she did even better, reaching the third round of both the Australian Open and Wimbledon, while finishing the season ranked #37, a huge jump. In 2014, she won her maiden title on the grass courts of Eastbourne, defeating future Grand Slam champion Angelique Kerber in the final. While she didn't progress beyond the third round in any of the Grand Slams, she improved her year-end rank to #31 and clearly seemed to be a player on the rise, both in the eyes of the fans and of many observers of the sport.

Madison took an even bigger leap forward in 2015; though she did not lay claim to a tournament title, she did very well in the majors that year. Her big breakthrough came at the Australian Open, where, as an unseeded player, she reached the semifinals, defeating two-time Wimbledon champion and then world #4 Petra Kvitova in the third round, and defeating [name redacted] in three sets in the quarterfinals. Her run ended after losing to [younger sister of the earlier redacted name], the eventual champ, in the semis, but it was a great result, and, much like Sloane Stephens' run a few years earlier, seemed to be the definitive signal of a bright new talent on the horizon. Madison also had career-best results in two other majors in 2015: she reached the quarterfinals of Wimbledon and the fourth round of the U.S. Open later that year, and finished the year in the world's top 20 for the first time, at #18. 

2016 may have been a bit of a step back in the Grand Slams for Madison - she made the fourth round in each, but was unable to reach any more quarters or semis - but, in terms of overall consistency, was probably an even better year; she won her second career grass-court title at Birmingham, and, with that match, became the first American woman to debut in the top 10 of the rankings since a very young [current world #1 WTA player], way back in 1999. Honestly, I think the sisters have kinda normalized the idea of black women being successful in the sport so much that it seems like Madison hitting the top 10 almost kinda seemed a bit blase, to a certain extent, aside from the general excitement for many of a young American player performing well. Well, it wasn't solely that for me; I know that she's said in interviews that she prefers to think of herself as simply Madison and not by any specific race, but I still thought it was cool to see another black woman succeeding in the sport, and one from my home state, at that. She peaked at #7, and though she had to miss the Aussie Open due to wrist surgery, as I mentioned at the beginning, she's still in the top 10 and will likely be a fixture there for a while, as she's going to be turning a mere 22 years old in a few days.

Personally, I think Madison has all the keys (I can hear the collective groan...I was waiting to use that one for a while :p) to become a Grand Slam winner. She's strong as hell, can hit the hell out of the ball, and seems to have held her nerve very nicely in a lot of clutch situations so far. I don't know exactly when her time will come, but don't be surprised if it does sooner rather than later. I'm not at all a betting man, but if I were, I almost certainly would bet that this woman will be competing for - and winning - the biggest titles in the game for years to come.