US tennis star Madison Keys suffers embarrassing blooper at Wimbledon - with fans left in stitches
Keys, 30, who hails from Illinois in the US, is ranked at No 6 in the world and has enjoyed an impressive 2025 so far.
Back in January, she won the Australian Open after beating Aryna Sabalenka in the final, while she also reached the quarter-finals at the French Open.
The 30-year-old was drawn against Romanian star Elena-Gabriela Ruse in the first round at Wimbledon and faced off against the world No 58 on Court 2 on Monday.
However, just as the first set was getting underway, Keys suffered an epic fail of a serve.
With the scores level at 1-1 in the first set, Keys was 15-0 up and looking to extend her advantage.
Este saque de Keys????? 😳😳😳😳😳😳😳 pic.twitter.com/t5EZjcLa9G
— José Morón (@jmgmoron) June 30, 2025
But, as she threw the ball up to serve, the American completely fluffed her shot and the ball ballooned directly into the air in unprecedented scenes.
The ball then appeared to swerve as Ruse rushed to return the serve, but Key's effort had narrowly landed out.
A bemused crowd could be heard chuckling away at the bizarre incident after being left shocked at what had gone on.
Even the American could see the funny side of it and Keys had a big smile on her face as she prepared for her second serve.
It proved to be a sloppy start to the tournament for Keys as she lost the first set to Ruse 6-7, although she bounced back to win the next two sets 7-5 7-5 to progress.
The 30-year-old has reached two quarter-finals at the All England Club before, but suffered heartbreak last year when she was two points from beating Jasmine Paolini in the fourth round when she was forced to retire from the match after tearing her hamstring.
And speaking last week, Keys outlined her desire to make up for that this time around.
'Hopefully this is the year I make it past the quarters because Wimbledon has always been something that I dreamed of,' she told The Guardian.
'It has this aura which means that, I think, for all tennis players it's the tournament.'
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