Black Tennis Pros

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, FL, USA - American Madison Keys added her name to the history books Monday, becoming the seventh-youngest player ever to win a Sony Ericsson WTA Tour singles main draw match.

Keys, who played her first professional event on the ITF Women's Circuit recently in Fort Walton Beach but fell first round, was a wildcard into The MPS Group Championships this week and made excellent use of that, beating world No.81 Alla Kudryavtseva of Russia, 75 64. She rallied from 5-2 down to win the first set and hit four aces in the second set - including one on match point.

"The last couple of days were just practice and getting ready for my first round, and after today I have to go back out and do the same thing for my next match," Keys said. "I don't really look past my next match. I just take it day by day."

Keys, originally from Chicago, now lives in Boca Raton and trains at the Evert Academy, coached by John Evert. Among her junior accomplishments are Under 12 titles at Eddie Herr and the Orange Bowl in 2007, and she lists clay as her favorite surface. At the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami two years ago, Portugal's Michelle Larcher de Brito became the seventh-youngest player to win a singles main draw match on the Tour; Keys beat her by just four days.

The following is a list of the 10 youngest players ever to win a main draw match in singles on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour:

1. Fernandez, Mary Joe (13 years & 6 months - 1985 Miami)
2. Capriati, Jennifer (13 years & 11 months - 1990 Boca Raton)
3. Graf, Steffi (13 years, 11 months & 10 days - 1983 Roland Garros)
4. Hingis, Martina (14 years & 1 week - 1994 Zürich)
5. Rinaldi, Kathy (14 years & 3 weeks - 1981 Amelia Island)
6. Austin, Tracy (14 years & 1 month - 1977 Portland)
7. Keys, Madison (14 years & 48 days - 2009 Ponte Vedra Beach)
8. Larcher de Brito, Michelle (14 years & 52 days - 2007 Miami)
9. Rehe, Stephanie (14 years & 2 months - 1984 Hershey)
10. Sabatini, Gabriela (14 years, 2 months & 2 weeks - 1984 Indianapolis)

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PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Fourteen-year-old Madison Keys made her WTA Tour debut a memorable one, upsetting Russia's Alla Kudryavtseva 7-5, 6-4 on Monday in the opening round of The MPS Group Championships.

The teen from Boca Raton, Fla., fell behind 5-2 in the first set but used powerful groundstrokes to break Kudryavtseva twice and a serve that averaged 101 mph to win the set.

Keys lost the first game of the second set before going on a four-game run, and after the 81st-ranked Kudryavtseva fought back to 4-5, Keys won the match with an ace.

"The first two or three games I was nervous," she said. "It was kind of just the first few games of just hitting the ball and feeling it and really getting into a rhythm that made me feel a lot better."

Keys could face the tournament's top seed and the world's ninth-ranked player, Nadia Petrova, in the second round. The Russian opens play Tuesday against Olga Govortsova.

"I actually got into tennis because of Venus and Serena (Williams)," Keys said. "I was watching Wimbledon one year and Venus was playing and I really liked how she was playing but I also liked her outfit.

"I told my dad I wanted a dress like Venus' and he said 'only if you play tennis.' So, I went to Walgreen's, got a racket and started playing."

Keys gets press grilling after big win:

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