section_path: Career/2017: Injury struggles, US Open runner-up
section_name: 2017: Injury struggles, US Open runner-up
paragraph_text: 2017: Injury struggles, US Open runner-up
  
  Before the beginning of the season, Keys had surgery to repair her injured left wrist, which she hurt over a year earlier at the 2015 US Open. She was aware of the injury in the middle of 2016 and was planning on having surgery after the 2016 US Open. However, she decided to delay surgery in order to attempt to qualify for the year-end WTA Finals for the first time. Also during the off-season, Keys rekindled her relationship with Davenport and brought her back as her primary coach.
  
  Due to surgery, Keys missed the Australian Open and did not return to the tennis scene until March at the Indian Wells Open. Although she would make it to the third round at the tournament, Keys would begin a long period of struggles that lasted deep into the summer. During this period, she also had a second surgery on her wrist after the French Open. Keys did not win back-to-back matches again until the Stanford Classic in August. By this point, her ranking had fallen out of the top 20. Despite entering the Premier-level tournament with only six wins on the season, Keys won the event after knocking out Wimbledon champion Garbiñe Muguruza in the semifinals and close friend CoCo Vandeweghe in the final in their first ever meeting. This was her third career title. Keys then defeated Vandeweghe in her very next match at the Cincinnati Open, but this time she was stopped by Muguruza in the third round.
  
  Keys next played at the US Open. In the fourth round, she upset fourth seed Elina Svitolina to join fellow Americans CoCo Vandeweghe, Sloane Stephens, and Venus Williams in the quarterfinals. All four of them would win their matches to set up an all-American semifinal. This was the first time four Americans made the semifinals at a major since Wimbledon in 1985 and the first occurrence at the US Open since 1979. In the semifinals, Keys defeated Vandeweghe for the third time in a little over a month, losing just three games. Stephens won the other semifinal. These victories made Keys and Stephens the first Americans other than the Williams sisters to reach a women's major tournament final since Keys's coach Lindsay Davenport in 2005. Bidding to become the first American US Open champion other than the Williams sisters since Davenport in 1998, Keys lost in the final to her close friend in straight sets.
  
  Before the beginning of the season, Keys had surgery to repair her injured left wrist, which she hurt over a year earlier at the 2015 US Open. She was aware of the injury in the middle of 2016 and was planning on having surgery after the 2016 US Open. However, she decided to delay surgery in order to attempt to qualify for the year-end WTA Finals for the first time. Also during the off-season, Keys rekindled her relationship with Davenport and brought her back as her primary coach.
  
  Due to surgery, Keys missed the Australian Open and did not return to the tennis scene until March at the Indian Wells Open. Although she would make it to the third round at the tournament, Keys would begin a long period of struggles that lasted deep into the summer. During this period, she also had a second surgery on her wrist after the French Open. Keys did not win back-to-back matches again until the Stanford Classic in August. By this point, her ranking had fallen out of the top 20. Despite entering the Premier-level tournament with only six wins on the season, Keys won the event after knocking out Wimbledon champion Garbiñe Muguruza in the semifinals and close friend CoCo Vandeweghe in the final in their first ever meeting. This was her third career title. Keys then defeated Vandeweghe in her very next match at the Cincinnati Open, but this time she was stopped by Muguruza in the third round.
  
  Keys next played at the US Open. In the fourth round, she upset fourth seed Elina Svitolina to join fellow Americans CoCo Vandeweghe, Sloane Stephens, and Venus Williams in the quarterfinals. All four of them would win their matches to set up an all-American semifinal. This was the first time four Americans made the semifinals at a major since Wimbledon in 1985 and the first occurrence at the US Open since 1979. In the semifinals, Keys defeated Vandeweghe for the third time in a little over a month, losing just three games. Stephens won the other semifinal. These victories made Keys and Stephens the first Americans other than the Williams sisters to reach a women's major tournament final since Keys's coach Lindsay Davenport in 2005. Bidding to become the first American US Open champion other than the Williams sisters since Davenport in 1998, Keys lost in the final to her close friend in straight sets.