Casey Dellacqua has claimed that Madison Keys is worthy of a top-10 ranking after losing to the American teenager in the second round of the Australian Open.
An impressive start from the Perth-born Dellacqua put her on course for victory, but Keys responded in emphatic fashion to upset the 29th seed and the Australian fans with a 2-6 6-1 6-1 triumph.
"Obviously I started off well. I thought at some point her level was going to improve. She's certainly a quality player. So I was very aware that her level was going to improve," Dellacqua told reporters.
"Then once she got confident and once she got swinging, she's pretty much top-10 material I would say. Once she gets firing, she's on the ball. Yeah, it was tough from that point on.
"Once, like I said, those first few games in that second set, she started to fight through them, got a little bit confident. Once she starts free swinging, it's pretty hard to stop that."
Keys will meet fourth seed Petra Kvitova in the third round on Saturday.
Callum Mulvihill
