Keys advances Down Under
No. 17 seed healthy and ready for full season
MELBOURNE, Australia – It was only the second day of the Australian Open, but Madison Keys already achieved a mini-milestone at Melbourne Park.
The 17th seed became the only seeded American woman remaining in contention for the Australian Open title when she beat Wang Qiang of China 6-1,
7-5 Tuesday. Monday’s first day of action delivered upset blows to No. 5 Venus Williams, No. 10 CoCo Vandeweghe and No. 13 Sloane Stephens, the reigning U.S. Open champion.
“I think they all had really tough draws,” said Keys, sounding very much like the daughter of two attorneys as she came to the defense of her compatriots. “I don’t think any of those were ‘bad losses.’ It’s how sports work. Hopefully next tournament they do better.”
Keys, always presenting as considerate and caring, has the good fortune of not having to worry about how she’ll do at subsequent tournaments, at least not yet.
She is joined in that distinction by
13th-seeded Sam Querrey, who won his first-round encounter against Feliciano Lopez of Spain 6-3, 6-4, 6-2. The other two seeded American men — No. 8 Jack Sock and No. 16 John Isner — were ousted Monday.
Keys, 22, who advanced to her first Grand Slam tournament final in September in the U.S. Open, was in trouble in the second set against Wang.
She trailed 4-1, having surrendered her fourth service game, on a fifth break point, with a forehand error. She bounced back to break Wang’s serve in the ninth and 11th games and closed out the match with an ace.
Afterward, Keys offered the standard answers of being nervous in the first round, not looking beyond the match in front of her, in response to whether it feels different playing at a Grand Slam after being a Grand Slam finalist.
When pushed a bit, she admitted it takes an effort not to put expectations on oneself and being able to achieve that level of level-headed Zen remains a work in progress.
Keys play Ekaterina Alexandrova of Russia on Thursday.
“I think I’ve definitely gotten better at it,” Keys said. “(I was) just trying to re- member what I did well at the U.S. Open. I did a lot of things well (there). More than anything, I think I fought well and I didn’t get ahead of myself.”
The past few years, Keys has tended to have injury issues on her mind.
She didn’t even have an opportunity to journey to Australia last year as she was recuperating from wrist surgery.
This year Keys finally believes she’s in mint condition and ready for action. But that fact doesn’t find her setting lofty target objectives for the season.
“I definitely feel very strong and fit and ready to play a full season,” she said. “I set goals. But as far as what I want from the year, I’m never looking at a specific result or ranking or anything like that. And after the last couple of years that I’ve had, if I can finish a year healthy, that’s really all I want to do.”
Keys, who had her first Grand Slam success as a teen when she scored a semifinal berth here in 2015, said that despite the final loss to Stephens the U.S. Open delivered important lessons.
“I am really proud of the way that I fought in some of those matches when it could have been very easy to throw in the towel, walk away,” she said. “That’s what I think I did really well. That’s what I want to hang on to and try to continue improving on.”
Improving takes constant focus according to Keys, so while many of the players posted selfies at exclusive beach resorts or celebrity hangouts during the offseason, she had no similar experience by choice.
“I didn’t vacation, vacation,” she said. “I’m incapable of doing that. I can’t handle it. I can’t relax. I just like to always be near a gym or something.”
While she has a lack of interest in legit vacations, Keys on occasion finds time to dedicate to interests away from tennis.
In 2016, she became an ambassador for FearlessyGIRL, an organization focused on assisting adolescent girls to develop positive attitudes.
“It’s mostly focused on high school girls but also middle school,” she said. “It’s really just getting girls to talk to each other, realize they’re not alone, sticking together, figuring out that they’re all going through similar things. … I think starting from a younger age, women helping women in the long run will help everyone.”
For now, Keys is keeping content in attempting to help herself carve out another successful Grand Slam outing in Melbourne.