French Open 2018: Don't have to be mean to win, says Madison Keys

The happy-go-lucky American is through to the French Open semi-finals for the first time after a straight-sets win over Yulia Putintseva

America's Madison Keys

Madison Keys vowed to carry on smiling after moving closer to a maiden Grand Slam title. The happy-go-lucky American is through to the French Open semi-finals for the first time after a straight-sets win over Yulia Putintseva.

'Too nice a person'
She said: "I have actually been told quite often that I'll never win or do well because I'm too nice a person and I just don't have it. I think that's a load of crap, but, you know, it's just me.

"I don't think you have to be mean in order to win matches. I think there's a difference between being intense and wanting it and fighting and just not being nice, so that's something that I have always stayed true to. "I'm not ever going to try to be a person that isn't nice, so that feels more authentic to me and, you know, I think I'm still doing okay. Well, trying to be as nice as possible."

Putintseva, who beat Britian's Johanna Konta in the first round, grabbed the first break of serve but Keys hit straight back. Keys then took the tie-break, her power and accuracy eventually too much for Putintseva during a brutal set point. Putintseva, from Kazakhstan, repeatedly had Keys scrambling at the net with her cute drop shots.

But Keys had the nous and consistency to keep the pressure on her opponent and broke in the seventh game of the second set before going on to win 7-6, 6-4.

Sloane Stephens

Sloane in Last 4
Meanwhile, US Open champion Sloane Stephens brushed aside Russian Daria Kasatkina in the quarter-finals to set up a repeat of last year's US Open.

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