No.16 Madison Keys advanced to her third consecutive quarterfinal after defeating Jennifer Brady 6-4, 6-0 at the Mubadala Citi DC Open. 

Keys will face either No.4 seed Maria Sakkari or Leylah Fernandez on Friday for a spot in the semifinals. 

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Keys continues to build on her resurgent summer form. Since the start of the grass season, she won Eastbourne for her seventh career title and advanced to her first major quarterfinal of the year at Wimbledon. She is now into her second hard-court quarterfinal of the season.

Playing in her first Hologic WTA Tour event in nearly two years, Brady came into the match after a confident 6-2, 6-1 win over Rome finalist Anhelina Kalinina in the first round. The 2021 Australian Open finalist held a 1-0 advantage against Keys, winning their only other meeting at 2019 Beijing.  

"I think I'm not the only person on tour to say that we're so happy to have Jenny back," Keys said of her doubles partner. "She's had such a long road and we're so happy she's back from injury and playing some great tennis."

Why patience and discipline were key to Brady's injury comeback

Keys leveled their head-to-head record by breaking Brady's serve six times over the course of the 66-minute match. Brady broke serve immediately in the first game of the match, but Keys responded with four consecutive games to build a 4-1 lead. 

Brady responded with a surge of her own, saving two set points on her own serve before breaking Keys to get back on serve at 5-4. But serving to level the score, Brady was broken for a third time in the set.

Keys continued to pull away in the second set. Play was interrupted at 6-4, 3-0 due to light issues and the match was moved to Stadium Court, but the change in scenery did not deter the former World No.7. She sealed the win on her fourth match point.

"Unfortunately, we had to play each other so early but I think there's a lot of great tennis for Jenny to play," Keys said. "Her level in the first set was very high so I have no doubt that she'll be back where she should be soon." 

In other results on Day 3, defending champion Liudmila Samsonova returned to the quarterfinals after posting a 6-1, 6-3 win over Sorana Cirstea. Samsonova will face either No.2 seed Caroline Garcia or Ukraine's Marta Kostyuk.