Madison Keys Survives Early Scare to Beat Alina Korneeva, Advances at 2026 US Open
No. 22 seed Madison Keys survived a rocky start to beat Alina Korneeva 7-5, 6-4 in the US Open first round, avenging last year's early exit and extending her strong late-summer form.
Madison Keys is chasing redemption at Flushing Meadows, and so far the No. 22 seed is delivering. The reigning Australian Open champion battled past 19-year-old Russian qualifier Alina Korneeva 7-5, 6-4 in her 2026 US Open opener, erasing the memory of last year’s shocking first-round exit at the same tournament and keeping her name trending across US sports conversation this week.
The 31-year-old American has spent more than a decade as one of the WTA’s most explosive ball-strikers, and last January she finally broke through for her maiden Grand Slam title, toppling Iga Swiatek in the semifinals and Aryna Sabalenka in the final at the Australian Open. That triumph pushed her career earnings past $24 million and made her the oldest first-time Australian Open champion in the tournament’s history. Since then, 2026 has been a study in inconsistency — flashes of the form that won her a major, interrupted by frustratingly early stumbles at the other three Slams.
Overcoming Early Jitters at Arthur Ashe
Tuesday’s match inside Arthur Ashe Stadium was not a straightforward victory. Korneeva jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first set, and for a stretch it looked like Keys might be headed toward the same fate that ended her 2025 US Open in the opening round. Instead, the American steadied her serve and her forehand, closing out the set 7-5 before pulling away 6-4 in the second to seal the 94-minute win. It was the kind of gutsy, grinding performance that had been largely absent from her Slam results this year, and it sets up a second-round matchup against the winner of Lucie Havlickova and Anna Bondar.
Keys enters New York with a mixed but not discouraging body of work since her Melbourne breakthrough. She exited early at the French Open and Wimbledon, results that raised questions about whether the Australian Open run was an outlier rather than a new baseline. But she answered emphatically at Eastbourne in June, capturing the grass-court title with a 7-5, 6-4 win over Tatjana Maria in the final — her 11th career WTA singles crown.
A Statement Run in Cincinnati
The clearest signal that Keys remains a threat on hard courts came last month at the Cincinnati Open, a WTA 1000 event where she reached the quarterfinals. She handled qualifier Xiyu Wang 7-6(3), 6-4 in the fourth round before running into Sara Bejlek, the unseeded Czech who became the story of the tournament. Bejlek rallied from a set down to beat Keys 3-6, 6-4, 7-6(5), part of a stunning week in which the 20-year-old also knocked out world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka and former Australian Open finalist Barbora Krejcikova. Losing to a player playing that kind of tennis is far less alarming than an ordinary quarterfinal exit, and it reinforced that Keys was building real form heading into the US Open.
That form now carries real stakes. A deep run in New York would be Keys’ best Slam result of the season outside Melbourne and would go a long way toward validating her Australian Open title as more than a one-off. Bettors weighing a DraftKings promo code for the rest of the tournament will be watching her next matchup closely, since her path opens up considerably if she can navigate the next two rounds against unseeded opposition.
What’s Next
Keys’ next test comes against either Havlickova, a Czech qualifier, or Bondar of Hungary — neither of whom has faced her tour-level pressure at a major before, and fans checking the latest sportsbooks lines will see her odds shorten with each round survived. A win would push the No. 22 seed into the third round and further toward a potential second-week collision with one of the tournament’s top seeds. Given her career-best ranking of No. 5 and a résumé that already includes a Grand Slam title, a US Open Cinderella run is well within reach if her serve and forehand continue holding up the way they did against Korneeva.
For now, the American has cleared the round that ended her tournament a year ago, and the trending attention around her name reflects just how many fans are watching to see whether this is the start of a genuine deep run — or another false start in an up-and-down season.