Andy Roddick has made a bold claim about Madison Keys after watching her exit the Australian Open earlier this week.
It marked a solid if unspectacular run for the American, who was the defending champion at this event.
Her defeat came at the hands of fellow American and good friend Jessica Pegula, which might have softened the blow, but an exit from any major is sure to hurt.
Roddick, however, has sought to pick out the positives.
Andy Roddick makes prediction about Madison Keys
Speaking on his Served with Andy Roddick podcast, he spoke about how it feels to be a defending champion at a Grand Slam.
He juxtaposed that with the position Madison Keys is now in, free from such a burden.
Roddick has backed this alleviated pressure to help her thrive in the coming year, admitting: “This is pure projection, I have not talked to Bjorn or anybody, but there is something that I know when she won it last year, it was like, how do I now perform as a Grand Slam champion? What is next?
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“There are some stress mechanisms that come with that. In a weird way, maybe this is the end of last year. There is this level set, her ranking goes down, and maybe she’s 15. But when you are 15 or whatever she ends up at, you all of a sudden are attacking the field again as opposed to being the one [being hunted].
“It seemed like she had some levity about it. Maybe more so than we saw at a lot of points last year after she had won. Best-case scenario, this is a hard reset.”
An outstanding Australian Open for the American WTA players
Despite the tough start to the Australian Open quarter-finals for the American women, it has still been a really strong tournament for them.
After all, 50% of the last eight were from the USA, and they were guaranteed to have at least one in the semi-finals, given Amanda Anisimova and Pegula will play against one another.
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Coco Gauff’s disappointing exit from the Australian Open, as well as Iva Jovic’s heavy defeat to Aryna Sabalenka, has significantly reduced those numbers.
It still bodes extremely well for the future of American tennis, especially with Learner Tien starring on the men’s side.
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