Round of 64 clash on Thriller Thursday!
Reigning Australian Open champion Madison Keys resumes her bid for clay court supremacy on Thursday, at the 2025 Italian Open in Rome. The American, who recently lost her No. 5 spot in the WTA Live Rankings to Jasmine Paolini, will look to rectify the minute flaws in her game when Varvara Gracheva of France stands across the net in this intriguing Round of 64 encounter. The winner will face either Peyton Stearns or Anna Kalinskaya in the next round.
Madison Keys is on a roll in 2025. She started the year with two consecutive titles at the ASB Classic in Auckland and the Australian Open. After a fairly good outing semifinal run at Indian Wells, the 30-year-old has been relatively quiet. At the recently concluded Madrid Open, ‘Madi’ won three matches without dropping a set en route to the quarterfinals. She shocked the world by dishing out a bagel to Iga Swiatek in the opening set, before the No. 2 seed knocked her out.
Varvara Gracheva has amassed a mere three wins in her last five tournaments this year. Nonetheless, the Frenchwoman has been displaying steady progress on the WTA circuit. At the age of 24, she has already beaten the likes of Ons Jabeur and Marta Kostyuk on tour. In her Italian Open Round-1 tussle, Gracheva beat Ajla Tomljanovic 6-3 6-4 to book a meeting with Keys.
The head to head record between Madison Keys and Varvara Gracheva is 0-0. This is their first meeting on the WTA circuit.
| Madison Keys | Category | Varvara Gracheva |
| 1 | Grand Slams | 0 |
| 10 | WTA Singles Titles | 0 |
| 0 | WTA Doubles Titles | 0 |
| 1 | WTA-1000 Titles | 0 |
| SF (Rio 2016) | Olympics Best Performance | R1 (Paris 2024) |
| No. 6 | Current World Ranking | No. 65 |
Madison Keys is the likely victor of this Round-2 encounter on Pietrangeli Stadium. The major champion is an expert at playing percentage tennis to outhit her opponents. She will rely on her flat groundstrokes to do the job vs Gracheva. While the French young gun played an outstanding match against Tomljanovic, the Keys challenge is a level or two higher.
Prediction: Madison Keys in straight sets.
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Madison Keys Win: 1/5
Varvara Gracheva Win: 9/2
