31 August,2016 08:10 AM IST | | Agencies
American Madison downs compatriot Alison Riske 4-6, 7-6, 6-2 in marathon tie which ends at 1.40 am in New York
US Madison Keys during the US Open women's singles match against compatriot Alison Riske at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York on Monday. Pic/AFP
New York: American Madison Keys reached the US Open second round on Monday beating compatriot Alison Riske in a tie which ended at 1.48am, the latest finish to a women's match in tournament history.
US Madison Keys during the US Open women's singles match against compatriot Alison Riske at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York on Monday. Pic/AFP
Keys triumphed 4-6, 7-6 (7/5), 6-2 and goes on to face fellow American Kayla Day for a place in the last 32.
Day, just 16 and ranked 374 in the world, went through when opponent Madison Brengle retired in the second set with an arm injury.
Keys fired 60 winners and 60 unforced errors with 13 aces. The eighth seed rallied from down a set and a break to win 4-6, 7-6 (5), 6-2 in 2 hours, 26 minutes.
Both players said they weren't aware of how late the match went into the night. "Now that I'm a part of it, yay," Keys said of setting a record to ESPN.
Alison Riske
"Let's not try to break it." Asked whether she's a night owl, Riske said simply: "No."
Keys, meanwhile, is definitely not a morning person. "This time of morning, I am," she said in her on-court interview shortly before 2 am "At 6 am, 7 am, I'm not a good person."
The 60th-ranked Riske had two points on her serve at 5-4 in the second-set tiebreaker to try to close out the match, but Keys won them both and clinched the set on the next point.
Riske has lost 10 straight Grand Slam matches. She's 2-16 against top-10 opponents, though one of the victories came against Petra Kvitova when Riske reached the round of 16 at the 2013 US Open.
"It's only a matter of time that things start turning my way," she said.
Medical timeout
Keys took a medical timeout in the second set to have a trainer work on her right shoulder. She said it was just soreness, and she didn't expect it to be an issue going forward.
The 21-year-old is coming off a run to the Olympic semifinals, but she withdrew from the hard-court tuneup at New Haven because of a neck injury.
