Keys advances past injured Samsonova into Adelaide final

Madison Keys reached the 15th WTA singles final of her career at the Adelaide International on Friday, advancing past Liudmila Samsonova 5-7, 7-5, 3-0, ret. Samsonova retired from the match due to an abdominal injury.

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After narrowly losing the first set, World No.20 Keys battled to a gritty second-set win before an ailing Samsonova retired while down a double-break in the decider. After a loss in their first career meeting in 2021, Keys has won her last five encounters with 26th-ranked Samsonova.

"Obviously not how you want to win a match, with a retirement, but I think I was very proud of myself today, being able to stay in the match," Keys said afterwards. "She came out playing so well at the start. ... Being able to just tough it out and staying in the match as long as I could, very happy about that."

The American has now gotten past four consecutive Top 30 players to reach this week's WTA 500 final. She has defeated Beatriz Haddad Maia, defending champion Jelena Ostapenko, No.3 seed Daria Kasatkina and now Samsonova to book a spot in the championship match. 

Keys will now go for her ninth career title, and her first hard-court title since 2022, when she won a WTA 250 title in this very city of Adelaide. She will face either No.1 seed Jessica Pegula or Yulia Putintseva in Saturday's final.

Keys fought back from 3-0 down in the first set and saved four set points to get back on serve at 5-4. However, Samsonova grabbed four more set points at 6-5, eventually sealing the set with a powerful rally forehand -- although she took a medical time-out directly after that set.

Both players hit more winners than unforced errors in the second set, and Keys’ ratio was particularly stellar, with 17 winners to just four unforced errors. At 5-5, Samsonova let a 40-0 lead slip away as Keys obtained the only break of the set. In the next game, Keys slammed a backhand winner to tie the match.

In the third set, Keys broke Samsonova twice in succession, grabbing the 3-0 lead with a return winner just before Samsonova stopped play. Despite losing the first set, Keys still finished the match with 37 winners to 14 unforced errors.

More to come...