Madison Keys will have a lot of eyes on her when she arrives in Melbourne ahead of the Australian Open.
Keys beat Aryna Sabalenka to win her first Grand Slam title at the Australian Open last year, eight years after reaching her only other major final at the US Open.
Nearly a year later, Keys has extra pressure on her as the defending Australian Open champion which she has never experienced before.
Despite Keys having fitness concerns ahead of the Australian Open, she is now attempting to defend another title and has explained why she feels she is different to other Grand Slam champions.
Madison Keys details why her Grand Slam victory was different
Prior to winning the Australian Open last year, Keys beat Jessica Pegula to win the Adelaide International title.
Keys has now returned to the WTA 500 tournament as the defending champion, and she spoke ahead of the event in her pre-tournament press conference.
This is where she was asked about how her victory at the Australian Open last year changed her life.
Keys responded by suggesting that it has not actually had much of an impact on her life, pointing out that many of the other first-time Grand Slam winners were breaking through, while she was already an established player on the WTA Tour.
“Everyone loves to ask me if it’s changed my life,” said Keys. “I don’t think that it’s really changed my life. It’s a huge accomplishment, and it’s something I’m massively proud of myself for. But I think I’m a little bit, I’m a bit of a different first Slam winner than we’ve had the past couple of years. A lot of them have been like 19, or they came from qualies, or things like that.
“So seeing as I’ve had many more years on tour, and everyone kind of knew me, and I’ve had pretty high levels of success already, it was just kind of one of those things that people are really happy that I finally achieved it, but it wasn’t quite a shock across the sport.
“So things haven’t changed that differently, other than just the fact that I just kind of get to put my name in the history book there.”
Which American man and woman do you think will go furthest at the Australian Open?
Madison Keys explains why she enjoys playing at the Adelaide International
Not only did Keys win the title at the Adelaide International last year, but she also won the tournament in 2022 and has a 100% record at the event.
When asked about how much this tournament helped in her Australian Open run last year, Keys spoke about how much she enjoys the courts and conditions in Adelaide.
“I think there’s, I think that there’s a bunch of different reasons why,” said Keys. “For one, I think obviously the more matches that you can win, the more confidence that you start gaining. But it’s also such a great just tournament in general. It’s easy to get around, it’s a little bit quieter and not as chaotic. So I think it’s a perfect place to be the week before a slam when tensions get very high.
“But it’s also, I’ve just really, I really like the conditions. I really enjoy the courts here. I think it’s kind of all of those things kind of package it up into being a really great week.”
Many top players elect not to compete in the week prior to Grand Slam tournaments, but Keys has elected to go down a different route.
When asked a similar question about how playing in Adelaide helped her win the Australian Open, Keys explained how she likes to get as many matches as possible in at the start of the season.
“It definitely helped a lot,” added Keys. “Twice before when I’ve played Adelaide, a few years ago it was a 250, and I ended up making the semis of Australian Open. And then last year obviously I went deep. So no pressure, I guess, on myself for that (smiling).
“I think it’s just really, like I said, you want matches at the beginning of the season. You really want to test yourself. I think that getting as many good matches as possible helps you figure out what’s working, what’s not working, where to make some tweaks here or there, but it also just gives you a lot of confidence and momentum.”
Who is your favorite player on the WTA Tour right now?
Keys is the second seed at the Adelaide International this year, and as a result receives an automatic bye to the second round.
As she looks to continue her 100% record at the tournament, Keys will await the winner of the match between Jelena Ostapenko and Tereza Valentova.
Receive exclusive tennis news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
