What a week for Madison Keys. She beat three Grand Slam champions on her way to winning the Volvo Open in Charleston, North Carolina.  She first beats Jelena Ostapenko in the round of 16, then Sloane Stephens in the Quarterfinal and finally Caroline Wozniacki in the final. That’s no small feat. Additionally, she handily beat a rising Monica Puig in the Semi-final. This is the same Monica Puig that beat two top players in Sabalenka and Collins. Like I wrote in my previous blog, be on the lookout for Monica Puig, as she continues to leverage her new coach Kamau Murray.

In terms of Madison, she herself was working with a new coach this week. So, she’s definitely now set a pretty high bar with the new coaching team going into the clay season. This was Madison’s fourth WTA tournament win, and her first since she won Stanford way back in August of 2017. The other interesting thing about this tournament for Madison is the fact that she’d never beat either Stephens nor Wozniacki before this week. To beat two top players you’ve never beat before back to back on a way to a title is a huge deal in pro tennis. Let’s see how she will build on this.

At the Monterrey Open it was a solid week for Garbine Muguruza. The field was not as good as at the Volvo Open, but given the lack of consistency for Muguruza, this win is something she can definitely build from. Let’s not forget Muguruza is a two-time Grand Slam champion. However, as of late she’s looked more like a shadow of her old self. She finished the year ranked 18 in the world in 2018 after she had finished, 3 in 2015, 7 in 2016 and 2 in 2017. One has to believe that 2018 was an anomaly for such a great player. The clay season is something she excels at, so we will see if the Muguruza of old comes back.