Kindness meets peace in Charleston
Finally, women can also start with lucrative exhibition fights. In Charleston, for example, Madison Keys , Australian Open winner Sofia Kenin and SloaneStephens , who won the US Open in 2017, meet.
by tennisnet.com
last edit: Jun 23, 2020, 09:34 am
Madison Keys has only fond memories of Charleston - at least as far as 2019 is concerned. Keys not only won the title in the final against Caroline Wozniacki, but also beat her good friend Sloane Stephens in the quarterfinals. Which she had painfully put in her place twice on larger occasions: in the US Open final in 2017 and the following year in the final round of the French Open.
It is quite possible that Keys will also meet Stephens in the coming week. Because the two have agreed to an exhibition fight in Charleston, which will be held in team form. Madison Keys will give the captain of the "Kindness" team, Bethanie Mattek-Sands her counterpart as head of the "Peace" team. The two captains can choose their teams from a select field, the organizers in Charleston have ensured.
Azarenka and Kenin are two major winners
In addition to Stephens, there is also a choice of Sofia Kenin. At the beginning of the year, she surprisingly won the title at the Australian Open. Victoria Azarenka is another, even two, major winner. Monica Puig brings an Olympic gold medal from Rio de Janeiro. In addition, Amanda Anisimova is a player who caused a sensation in 2019 with her semi-finals in Paris. And a few more professionals like Alison Riske, Eugenie Bouchard or the young Canadian Leylah Fernandez.
The game is played under similarly strict corona rules as currently in Austria or Germany - even before the worrying news about Grigor Dimitrov, Borna Coric and Co.: No spectators, no linesman, no ball children. Madison Keys is convinced that the desire for competition tennis is so great that this will not be a problem for the participants. "We all say to ourselves: Please put me on a center court, breakball against me in the third set, because I would love to have that feeling again."