If anyone is going to stop Madison Keys from taking the 2025 ASB Classic title, they will have to be at their very best.

The top seed gave another impressive exhibition on Thursday, with a 6-1 6-2 demolition of Jaqueline Cristian to move into the quarter-finals. In terms of clean hitting, pure power and game strategy, no one has matched what the 29-year-old American has brought so far.

There is a long way to go, but Keys seems confident, composed and focused in her first visit to Auckland in more than a decade and is improving with each match. World No 85 Cristian is no mug – the Romanian was on the cusp of the top 50 midway through last year and has a solid game off both wings – but she was blown away in the 67-minute contest.

Keys grabbed five breaks and was almost impeccable on serve, broken only once, early in the second set after a 45-minute rain delay. Her returns were superb. Whatever Cristian tried, there was an answer, often hitting the lines or either corner. And the American’s serve was again metronomic. She dropped only one point in the opening set when her first serve landed and didn’t really relent in the second.