Italy’s Jasmine Paolini continued her remarkable run to reach the quarter-finals for the first time on Sunday when Madison Keys withdrew with injury in the third set. The match was played on Court 1, with Case leading 5-2 in the third set. 6), 5-5 ended, unable to move, tears streaming down my face.
“I feel very sorry for her now, to end the match like this, it’s terrible,” said Paolini, who will face second-seeded Coco Gauff or another American, Emma Navarro. “I thought we played a very, very good game, and it was really tough, with a lot of ups and downs. I’m kind of happy, but also sad for her, it’s not easy to win a game like this.
“It was like a rollercoaster. I started really well and I was really focused on the court, but then she played great tennis and she improved her level but it was difficult returning the balls because they were really fast. .I kept saying to myself, you never know in tennis. In the end, I knew she was retiring, but I came here with a victory.
It’s just bad luck for Keys, a 29-year-old American who has suffered a series of injuries during his career. The 2017 U.S. Open runner-up has suffered injuries to her legs, wrists, knees, neck, abdomen, back and shoulders over the years that have caused her to miss significant time on tour.
If it wasn’t the way Paolini wanted it, the 28-year-old had never won a Tour-level match on grass before this year, but with the match looking like it would be Keyes, he held on to win Got the reward and ran away with it. She had recovered from being down 5-1 in the second set, but lost 8-6 in the tie-break and came back again in the deciding set.
The first set was all about Paolini, whose speed and surprising power on the court prompted Keys to commit too many unforced errors, and when she wasn’t really in an attacking position, the American started the match. Shot too early. But the second set was the opposite. Keys controlled his mistakes and chose his moments to attack wisely. The 12th seed, who last reached the semi-finals at Eastbourne, started to use her weapons, her serve getting into the groove and her forehand slamming past Paolini’s outstretched racquet.
The match was tense, though, with Case losing a 5-1 lead in the second set, and Paolini’s resilience was as impressive as her speed. At 5-5, facing a break point, Keys served consecutive A, A, and forehand winners. When the game entered the tie-break, she mustered up the courage to win the game 8-6 with a wonderful half volley.
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The third set seemed to be going in Keys’ favor as she led 5-2, but that’s when the problems started. After a missed forehand that tied Paolini at 3-5, Keys started limping, her left thigh giving her trouble. Paolini quickly tied the score to 4-5, and Case received a medical timeout off the court. When she returned, her left thigh was strapped so heavily that she had difficulty pushing her leg up to serve and could barely move more than two steps.
Her only chance was to try to serve, but to no avail, a double fault allowed Paolini to tie the score at 5-5. That’s pretty much it. Two points later, Case broke down in tears and quit the game.
