Black Tennis Pros

I'm tired and energized for her!

American Angela Haynes was unable to compete on Saturday for day one of qualifying at the Family Circle Cup, Charleston, South Carolina because she was in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida playing a doubles semifinal match.

Haynes and doubles partner Liga Dekmeijere of Latvia were knocked out of the MPS Group Championships by the team of Sania Mirza and Chia-Jung Chuang 6-4 6-3.

So what does Haynes do next? She make her way to Charleston, South Carolina where she has to play two rounds of qualifying on Sunday, and of course win both, for a potential slot in the main draw.

And damn it, she does it!

Haynes will meet Russian Alla Kudryavtseva in the first round.

American Shenay Perry also prevailed in the qualifying rounds to secure a spot in the main draw. Ahsha Rolle, Danielle Mills, and Mashona Washington were all eliminated.

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PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. (AP) - Top-seeded Nadia Petrova beat 14-year-old American Madison Keys 6-3, 6-2 in the second round of The MPS Group Championships on Wednesday night.

Petrova, ranked No. 10 in the world, won nine of the last 11 games to beat Keys, who was playing in her first WTA Tour event in the season-opening clay-court tournament.

"At the beginning of the match I didn't know what to expect," the Russian said. "She caught me by surprise."

The match was tied 3-3 in the first set before Petrova won three straight games.

"I had to make some adjustments," she said. "I was trying to go for too many winners early, trying to blow her away and just had to slow down."

Despite the loss, Keys was pleased with her play.

"When I hit a good shot she hit a good shot back," she said. "I feel pretty good about going 3 and 2 with a top 10 player."

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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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