Keys’ mission
Madison Keys wins in first round in French Open, discusses anti-cyberbullying efforts,
Madison Keys thinks that with every match she plays, win or lose, she can send an affirmative message to impressionable girls around the globe.
Tuesday, it was a 6-3, 6-2 firstround victory against Ashleigh Barty in the French Open that 13th-seeded Keys hopes will offer inspiration. It also was a positive personally for Keys, who had lost her three clay-court matches this season in Charleston, S.C., Madrid and Rome.
Keys, 22, who last year became a celebrity ambassador for FearlesslyGiRL, an international movement with a goal to empower girls to be resolute, is pleased to take on the responsibility of delivering an important message.
The banner across her social media pages, such as Twitter, offers the positive slogan “Good Vibe Tribe.” Keys’ paramount cause is to stop cyberbullying, which she, as a world-class tennis player, has been on the receiving end of from strangers.
The social media attacks started to get really nasty when she lost a three-setter in the Beijing semifinal to Britain’s Johanna Konta last fall. After the match, she checked her accounts to find people calling her anything from “loser” to “cancer of tennis.” Keys says shed’ had enough. “I just felt like if I am getting it on a probably more extreme scale and I have people telling me to just ignore it, so the people who are getting it in school, the younger girls, the younger boys, you can’t just keep telling the victims to just ignore it,” she said.
“In a big way it’s just standing up for yourself, and I think that’s a big thing. It seemed like it was such a topic that no one was supposed to talk about, you’re just supposed to ignore it and not engage in it, but it’s still in front of you and you’re still dealing with it. I think talking about it helps dealing and also maybe helps make it stop.
“Can’t we just be nice to each other?”
Keys thinks the people bullying her online have a personal stake in the outcome of her matches, which is why they respond with attacks.
“I would say 90% of the time it’s somebody who is betting on you and you lost them money,” she surmised.
“They feel because they decided to go bet five Euros that they should call you horrible names. For them, it makes them feel better. I would say to them, ‘Stop betting,’ but that’s just me.”
Keys also didn’t shy away Tuesday from commenting on the recent controversy taking place in Australia regarding 24time Grand Slam champion Margaret Court.
An evangelical Christian minister, Court has spoken out against legalizing gay marriage in Australia, and many are calling for the Australian Open court that bears her name to be renamed.
“I 100% disagree with what she said,” Keys said of Court. “I kind of agree with, maybe, having a name change and all of that. If that comes up, I’m sure there are many people who would be for that.”
Keys has played only five tournaments in 2017: Indian Wells, Miami, Charleston, Madrid and Rome. She was benched for the first two months of the year while healing from offseason surgery on her left wrist.
Although clay courts are not the best surface for Keys to showcase her aggressive on-court nature, she played precise tennis Tuesday and never faced a break point on serve in the 61-minute outing.
“I was really happy with how I played in the second set, especially, looking to come forward,” she said. “Overall I’m very happy with how everything went today.
“Obviously, (losing her previous three matches) wasn’t the most perfect way to go into a Slam, but I’m coming back from surgery and trying to get matches under my belt.”
Keys is among the Americans in Paris to survive the first round. There were 16 American women and 11 men — and 10 have moved on to the second round.
“In a big way it’s just standing up for yourself, and I think that’s a big thing. ... Can’t we just be nice to each other?” Madison Keys, on combating cyberbullying