Keys bests Stephens in a 'fun' match

NEWPORT — A year ago, Bjorn Fratangelo urged his girlfriend, Madison Keys, to visit the City-by-the-Sea.

At the time, Fratangelo was in the midst of a run to the semifinals at the Dell Technologies Hall of Fame Open. He lost in the first round this year but hung around all week because Keys was on her way.

Keys and Sloane Stephens met in an exhibition match Friday on Stadium Court, the first professional women’s tennis match here in 28 years. Keys, who is 0-3 against Stephens on the Women's Tennis Association Tour, won 6-4, 6-3 in front of a near-capacity crowd.

“My boyfriend has played here; this is his second time. Even last year, he was like, 'Oh, my gosh, this is the coolest place ever. You have to come one day,' " Keys said before the match as she toured the museum at the International Tennis Hall of Fame. “And then this happened this year and I was like, ‘Cool, I actually get to see Newport.’

“Once I heard it was, one, going to be in Newport and, two, with Sloane, I thought, ‘Why not? It sounds like fun.’ And here we are.”

Keys lost in the third round at Wimbledon and Stephens was eliminated in the first, so neither had played a match on grass in awhile. That actually may have been beneficial, as the men who play in Newport tend to say the courts have little in common with European grass courts.

Keys said Fratangelo gave her a little bit of a heads-up.

“He mostly just said to get ready for every ball, and go have some fun,” Keys said.

Stephens arrived early in the afternoon Friday and almost immediately was ushered around the grounds for various engagements, so she didn’t have a chance to check out the courts. She did not seem overly concerned and said she hadn’t talked to anyone about the conditions. “It’s a men’s tournament, so I don’t really talk to the guys about how the courts are."

She added, however, that she was intrigued by the opportunity to play here.

“My agent asked me and I said OK. I know that the Tennis Hall of Fame is here and ... I thought it would be a cool opportunity,” Stephens said. “I’ve never been here before, so it’s something new.”

Stephens, the third-ranked player in the world, and Keys, who is No. 12, met in the U.S. Open final last year, a match Stephens won, 6-3, 6-0, for her first Grand Slam title. Stephens said that while she and Keys are close, they don’t discuss that contest.

“A lot’s happened since then,” she said.

Exhibition matches during the Hall of Fame Open typically are not serious affairs. Often referred to as a hit-and-giggle, it tends to involve players cracking jokes with each other and trying trick shots to entertain the crowd.

Stephens and Keys, though, said beforehand they planned to take their exhibition seriously.

“I think we’re definitely going to play,” Keys had said. “I don’t think either of us has probably got much grass-court practice the last couple of weeks, so that part will be interesting, but it will be fun to go out there and get to play a somewhat-practice match.”

There were no exhibition shenanigans of the usual sort, but the two did banter a bit back and forth, mostly about line calls. There were no lines people used during the match, so Keys and Stephens called lines themselves, sometimes with the help of the crowd.

While the intensity did not come close to that of a match with stakes beyond bragging rights, Stephens and Keys did exchange some powerful groundstrokes and each made the other work for most points.

“We’ve never played each other in an exhibition before, and neither one of us really plays exhibitions,” Stephens had said before the event. “I think it’ll be a good match.”

The Hall of Fame hosted a WTA event from 1971 to 1974, and again from 1983 to 1990. Friday was the first time since then that WTA players graced the courts at the Hall of Fame.

“I think that’s part of why it’s so special today," Keys said, "because we’re going to be the first women’s match here in so long. Being a part of that history and bringing women’s tennis back to this area is really special and I’m very honored to be a part of it.”

— jkrueger@newportri.com