Madison Keys has already stated her main goal for the 2026 season after playing her first match of the year.
Keys beat Aryna Sabalenka to win the Australian Open last year, claiming her first Grand Slam title eight years after reaching her first major final.
Despite enjoying the biggest triumph of her career in 2025, it was not all positive for Keys, who struggled at the end of the year.
With Keys nearing her Australian Open title defence, she has now revealed her biggest goal for the year after returning to winning ways.
Madison Keys states her main goal for the 2026 season
Keys beat her compatriot McCartney Kessler, 6-4 6-3, in her first match of the year at the Brisbane International.
After winning her first WTA match since August, Keys went to her post-match press conference, where she was asked what she wanted to get out of her first tournament of the year.
Instead of answering just for the Brisbane International, Keys revealed that her goal for the entire year is to do things that make her more uncomfortable on court and not hold back in big moments.
“Yeah, I think that I have really been trying to focus on trying to get to the net a little bit more, and I think my biggest goal, not only for here but really just for the entire year, is to do the things that kind of make me uncomfortable on the court,” answered Keys.
“I think sometimes, especially if I get nervous or it’s in tight moments, I kind of fall back on being a little bit more comfortable, which I think sometimes actually gets me in trouble.
“So I think continuing to try to do the things that I have been working on in practice in matches in the big moments is probably my biggest goal of the year.”
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Madison Keys reveals what she worked on during the off-season
After making this admission about her goal for the year, Keys was asked more specifically about what she had been working on during the off-season.
This is where Keys highlighted that she had been particularly been focussing on both her serve and return, which she felt had not been working in the way she would have wanted to at the end of the 2025 season.
“Yeah, I think obviously just kind of working on my serve a little bit and on my return,” said Keys. “I felt like at the end of the year, I wasn’t starting the points quite as I wanted to, and that kind of resulted in being a little bit more on the defense and running a lot.
“So I have really tried to kind of shift my mentality and make sure that I’m trying to be the one that’s on my front foot and dictating points. And I think that massively comes from the first two balls. So really put a lot of emphasis on serve and first ball and return and first ball.”
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Keys will look to continue putting her hard work to the test in her next match in Brisbane against Diana Shnaider.
This will be a third meeting between the pair, with Keys leading the head-to-head against Shnaider 2-0.
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