Battle of the Madisons: Keys meets Brengle

MELBOURNE, Australia – A hemisphere and half the world away from New York's famed glistening row, Madison Avenue is a pop-up operation here with the unlikely run of two American tennis players.

Madison Keys and Madison Brengle meet Monday at the Australian Open in the fourth round, the furthest either of them has ever gone at a Grand Slam.

Safe to say that no matter what happens, a Madison will walk away the winner.

"I think it's great," said Keys after her upset of world No. 4 Petra Kvitova Saturday night. "We're obviously representing our name pretty well."

And they're representing American tennis well, too. It marks the first time since 2003 that four U.S. women have made the fourth round here, the Madisons joining the Williamses – that is, Serena and Venus.

"I think American women's tennis has come so far," observed Serena, the No. 1 player in the world. "For years I had to answer the question [with]: 'I don't know, I don't know.' But I think these players have been working really hard [and are] playing really, really well."

Madison who?

The paths of Keys and Brengle have been vastly different, though they have crossed at times, mostly on various training courts in Florida, where they've practiced at times together.

Brengle, 24, made her Grand Slam debut at the age of 16, courtesy of a USTA wildcard at this event. But she lost here in the first round, and didn't receive much more support thereafter from the Association, which she stopped working with later that year.

"I've been out of that system since 2007," Brengle said after her first-round win here last week. "I like doing my own thing very much."

Keys, similarly, had been showered with attention and support in her early teens. Last fall, at the age of 19, she decided it was time for a change, leaving a national training facility in Boca Raton, Fla., and moving cross-country to Los Angeles, where she now works with former world No. 1 Lindsay Davenport.

"When it's all flowing, she can beat anyone," Davenport told USA Today Sports in an interview. "I would be surprised if she wasn't able to get into the top 5 or top 10."

The Madisons will battle for a spot in the final eight here, a gradual rise for the 35th-ranked Keys compared to a meteoric – and rather unexpected one – for Brengle. She also reached her first-ever WTA final two weeks ago, at a warm-up event in Hobart.

"I'm extremely happy," said Brengle, a Delaware native who was ranked No. 145 at this time last year. "It's just been one match at a time. Obviously I wasn't looking ahead from any match. I just played the match in front of me. I did the best I could. So far it's worked pretty well."

Scouting a friendship

The two Madisons know one another pretty well, too, both saying they trade texts and sometimes a silly meme. Monday they'll trade groundstrokes for the right to earn $340,000.

"Maddie is a great player," Keys said of Brengle. "She has been around for a long time. She's always that person that can squeak out wins. She makes a million balls and she fights."

Brengle, alternately, must quell the storm of power that she'll face against the bigger, harder-hitting Keys.
"She's not the biggest of girls, so she has to make Keys hit a lot of balls," said Phil Simmonds, a former coach who is working as Brengle's coach this week. "She has to keep her first serve percentage up and neutralize. She has to keep Keys on her back foot."

"Keys is obviously a huge hitter, but to me it's a question for her to put it all together," said Patrick McEnroe, a TV commentator and the USTA's sitting player development head. "She can play inconsistent tennis at times. When you look at her game and her ability, when she gets hot... watch out."

That is the pattern Keys will want to avoid: She was red-hot Saturday against Kvitova, but can she keep her level up against a player she's expected to beat?

"I'm still going to have a game plan," Keys explained. "I'm going to go out and I'm going to try to execute it. At the end of the match, win or lose, hopefully I can come off the court and say I executed really well or I tried to execute."

"Madison [Keys] has power in the same sentence as Serena Williams," added Chris Evert. "I don't think you can say the same thing about many players. But she has to figure out how to harness that power."

Uptown Down Under

Brengle, a quiet and self-reserved player, had a bit of skin cancer removed last fall, only making the trip to Australia on a last-minute decision. The situation has furthered her resolve – on the court and off of it.

"I think I'm pretty mentally tough," said Brengle, whose mom has been watching on TV from home. "Anyone that does this kind of has to be. You don't have a team to rely on out there. If you're having a bad day, tough luck."

For Keys, on the sideline these past ten days (and a few months before that) has been Davenport, who touts her player's low-key approach as the reason for their relationship clicking so well so far.

"There's few people that I would make this sacrifice for, but Madison has this unassuming personality," Davenport said. "I feel like that's why we get along well. I'm trying not to over-coach. I know what I would want to hear at certain points in a Grand Slam, so I'm trying to apply that. She tries her ass off. She hasn't had any sort of bad attitude."

Madison vs. Madison who walks away the winner?

"I think it's pretty cool that there's not only two Americans playing each other in the fourth round, but that we have the same name," Keys said, smiling.

If you only go with first name, your pick is pretty fool-proof.

PHOTOS: Day 7 at the Australian Open