By Martyn Herman
LONDON, July 4 (Reuters) – Madison Keys had extra reason to celebrate her Fourth of July victory over fellow American Amanda Anisimova at Wimbledon on Saturday — it was her first ever match on the fabled Centre Court.
Keys, the 26th seed, had never struck a ball on the sport’s most famous arena in 11 previous visits but it was worth the wait as she won 3-6 6-2 6-3 to reach the fourth round.
“I’m glad that I finally got to check that off of the list,” the 31-year-old former Australian Open champion told reporters when asked if it had been on her bucket list.
The fact she had never played on Centre Court before is remarkable in itself, given her profile and the fact that she is a two-time quarter-finalist at the grasscourt Slam.
“Everyone was shocked. I was saying that to (agent) Max (Eisenbud) the other day, and he’s like, ‘you’ve been on Centre Court.’ I was like, ‘no, I actually physically have not.'”
Keys found out that she would face sixth seed Anisimova when the order of play was published on Friday.
“I was so excited. I was texting our podcast group chat. I was like, ‘Guys, I’m going to be on the Centre Court of Wimbledon. This is crazy.'”
Keys, who warmed up for Wimbledon by winning the Eastbourne title last week, took a while to get going but then looked totally at home on the historic court.
Asked how it had felt in the minutes before she walked on, Keys said it had been fun.
“It’s funny, just like all these years later when you do the whole walk and down the stairs, I was like, I’ve never seen this. I kind of kept looking around,” she said.
“I don’t know if I would say it was intimidating. It was just really fun for me to … experience it for the first time. I really kind of took it all in. I was quite literally looking at every single picture on the wall.”
Keys will face Czech ninth seed Linda Noskova on Monday as she bids to match her best Wimbledon run.
(Reporting by Martyn Herman, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
