Madison Keys and Rhyne Williams win Australian Open wild cards – Tennis News
American youngsters, Madison Keys and Rhyne Williams, have succeeded in earning a wildcard entry into the main draw of the first Grand Slam of next season, the Australian Open.
Playoff tournament was held from Friday to Sunday to select a male and a female from America to award wild cards reserved for country’s youngsters. Eight men and the same number of men participated in the three day event. At the
end of that, Williams and Keys came out as the worthy winners in their respective categories.
Keys defeated her 21-year-old compatriot, Mallory Burdette, in straight sets 7-5, 6-3, in the final. She has won the wild card by winning the playoff event for the second year in a row. The American player was thrashed by China’s
Jie Zheng in straight sets 2-6, 1-6 in the first round at the Melbourne Park last year.
Ranked 137th in the world, Keys is hoping that she would do a better job this time. She said, "I'm pretty happy with how I've been doing and how I've been playing. Hopefully I can just really keep it up now. It'd be
great to go to Australia and not get killed in the first round this year. Hopefully that happens. But I'm just really excited to go down and start playing some tournaments again."
On the other hand, Williams will be taking part at the Australian Open for the first time. He stunned the world number 128, Tim Smyczek, in four sets 7-6 (7-4), 5-7, 6-3, 6-3, in the final of playoff tournament.
Williams was both happy and confident after making it to the first Major of the next season. He said, "I'm moving incredibly well, and when I'm moving my best I feel like I give myself a really good chance of winning, and I feel
like I could play with anyone."
The 21-year-old will be taking part in his second Grand Slam. He managed to qualify for this year’s US Open but lost to former world number one and countryman, Andy Roddick, in the first round. His only other tour level event of
2012 was the BNP Paribas Open but he met the same fate there as well.
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