Madison Keys wins Cincinnati WTA Premier 5 title

Madison Keys won the biggest of her now five career WTA singles titles on Sunday, topping Svetlana Kuznetsova, 7-5, 7-6, in the Western & Southern Open final. 

Trailing 3-5 in both sets, the 24-year-old American produced her best tennis when it mattered most, closing both stanzas with well-timed flurries of her trademark attacking tennis. In the end, her 43 winners and 13 aces carried her to her first WTA Premier 5 title. 

Keys' path to the Cincinnati crown went through four Grand Slam champions, including Garbiñe Muguruza (Round 1), Simona Halep (Round 3), Venus Williams (quarterfinals) and Kuznetsova.

“It was a tough draw from the very start,” Keys said.  “I played some really, really great players from Round 1 until today. I definitely think I played some of my best tennis consistently this week.”

The trophy puts Keys back into the WTA's Top 10 and will earn her a Top-10 seed at the US Open. She is now three spots off her career high of No. 7, first achieved in 2016.

“I'm obviously really happy and really proud of myself,” Keys said. “It's definitely more of a building block. I want to do well in New York, and I want to have a good end of the season, so I’m taking a lot of positives from this week.”

Her Cincy result will help put a pair of first-round losses to start the US Open Series firmly behind her as she enter the year's final Grand Slam. After losing to the eventual US Open champion each of the last two years in the final (Sloane Stephens, 2017) and semis (Naomi Osaka, 2018), this could be the year the American lifts the title herself at her home Slam.