Latest / Bleacher Report / Madison Keys on Facing Other Americans & Mindest After Winning Australian Open _ 2025 Roland-Garros

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Madison Keys on Facing Other Americans & Mindest After Winning Australian Open _ 2025 Roland-Garros · Bleacher Report

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Second straight All American matt Battle for Matty Keys, and
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: yet again she gets the win. She's here, She's back
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  Speaker 1: on the desk, and I'm excited to see her. I
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  Speaker 1: will say this, it was so I was so excited
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  Speaker 1: to meet Haley and this run for her. I'm sure
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  Speaker 1: it's a little bit bittersweet. What did she bring out
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  Speaker 1: of you today? What did Haley get to let you
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  Speaker 1: showcase in this match?
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  Speaker 2: I knew going into this match that Haley's a phenomenal
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  Speaker 2: tennis player. I truly think that she could be top ten.
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  Speaker 2: I think she's a fantastic tennis player. She serves really well.
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  Speaker 2: She has so many tangibles. She knows how to kind
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  Speaker 2: of mix up the pace and inject pace. So I
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  Speaker 2: knew that I was going to have to play really
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  Speaker 2: well today, especially returning. She's such a great serve and
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  Speaker 2: I knew I wasn't going to get a ton of
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  Speaker 2: opportunities in her service games, so to really when I
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  Speaker 2: did get opportunities, really try to just capitalize on those.
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  Speaker 3: You just thought you've been making such a difference. I
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  Speaker 3: think when just bouncing back when you have adversary down
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  Speaker 3: a break early in that second set, you're able to
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  Speaker 3: quickly bounce back. How have you been able to change
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  Speaker 3: that mentality coming into this tournament, particularly because on clay
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  Speaker 3: sometimes I can really get away from.
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  Speaker 2: You, I think, especially today. As soon as I got broken,
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  Speaker 2: I that first point of the next game I knew
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  Speaker 2: was really important and I wanted to try to immediately
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  Speaker 2: get the break back, because, like you said, it feels
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  Speaker 2: like it's an even bigger mountain to on play sometimes
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  Speaker 2: when you're down that break. So really just kind of
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  Speaker 2: buckling down and staying as tough as I could early
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  Speaker 2: in that next game, just even if I wasn't winning
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  Speaker 2: the points, at least trying to at least lengthen her
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  Speaker 2: service game to kind of make her think about it
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  Speaker 2: a little.
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  Speaker 3: Bit into thirty get it to exactly.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, a little bit of pressure at.
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  Speaker 4: Least, Matt, He's been really fun to watch your movement
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  Speaker 4: on the clay. I spoke with Jorn this might have
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  Speaker 4: been back in Australia. We were talking about, obviously the
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  Speaker 4: success you had leading into Ausie. This is before everything
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  Speaker 4: happened and you claimed your first Grand Seam title. But
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  Speaker 4: he made a statement and he said, personally, I feel
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  Speaker 4: that Maddie moves better on a clay court than she
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  Speaker 4: does even on hard courts. And when he said that,
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  Speaker 4: it seemed a bit shocking to me, just because I've
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  Speaker 4: seen you be so dominant on hard courts for a
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  Speaker 4: lot of times. But now I feel like I see
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  Speaker 4: what he's saying. How do you take that? Do you
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  Speaker 4: see that or feel as though you move a bit
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  Speaker 4: better on the clay because you have a bit more
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  Speaker 4: time and naturally slide better, or do you prefer to
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  Speaker 4: have that stable footing on a hardcourt.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, I think I would say I'd rather be
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  Speaker 2: on hardcore most things, but I do feel pretty comfortable
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  Speaker 2: on the clay. I grew up in Florida, I spent
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  Speaker 2: a lot of time on green clay, so I learned
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  Speaker 2: how to slide at a pretty young age, so I've
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  Speaker 2: always felt pretty comfortable switching to clay and being on it.
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  Speaker 2: I also like having that little bit of extra time,
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  Speaker 2: and especially here when it's sunny and nice out, the
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  Speaker 2: ball kind of bounces up a little bit higher, and
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  Speaker 2: I feel like it just everything just kind of works
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  Speaker 2: a little bit easier for me. So I definitely I
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  Speaker 2: don't mind clay. I'm not gonna say I love it.
• 3:01
  Speaker 5: Look at the success you win the tournament, then you'll
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  Speaker 5: say you love it.
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  Speaker 2: No, at this at this point in my career, I'm
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  Speaker 2: just gonna but we'll never love each other.
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  Speaker 5: Speaking of Bjorn, your your coach, your husband, you guys
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  Speaker 5: have been crushing it. You've been crushing it. But as
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  Speaker 5: your husband, has there ever been a moment where he
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  Speaker 5: said something and you're like, I want to fire you,
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  Speaker 5: but I can't. You're my husband. Is he unfirable? That's
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  Speaker 5: what I want to know.
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  Speaker 2: He's definitely unfirable, And I think he toes the line sometimes,
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  Speaker 2: but there's definitely times where he'll say something and like
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  Speaker 2: I just glare at him and he just laughs because
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  Speaker 2: he knows.
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  Speaker 5: You can't fire me exactly.
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  Speaker 2: But as I'm sure you all know Bjorn quite well,
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  Speaker 2: he doesn't really hold back. He kind of says what
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  Speaker 2: he thinks, what he feels, and you kind of know
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  Speaker 2: what he's thinking kind of about a moments. Doesn't really
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  Speaker 2: have much of a filter. So in a lot of ways,
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  Speaker 2: that's great. Sometimes when you know you're down in the
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  Speaker 2: third it's not really what you want to hear.
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  Speaker 5: Sometimes it's what you need if you ever need to
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  Speaker 5: fire him. It's almost like you need to bring in
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  Speaker 5: an outside consulting, a mediator out there.
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  Speaker 3: You've been the absolute American killer out here. Unfortunately and
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  Speaker 3: fortunately for you, you've got Cocoa Golf next. You have
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  Speaker 3: a better head to head against her. What makes you
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  Speaker 3: feel Because when I was playing against you, you were the
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  Speaker 3: young upcoming American of everyone was afraid of. Now you
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  Speaker 3: are the elder statesman. What makes you feel when you
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  Speaker 3: get that pride going against the other Americans because you've
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  Speaker 3: been facing younger foe after younger foe each and every time.
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  Speaker 2: I feel like there's so many great young up and
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  Speaker 2: coming players that it's I'm definitely on the other side
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  Speaker 2: of the conversation now, But it's always it's it's always hard,
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  Speaker 2: especially when you're playing when they're younger, and it's like,
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  Speaker 2: you know they're gonna come out and they're going to
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  Speaker 2: play their best tennis, so you're going to I have
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  Speaker 2: to raise your level as well. But it kind of
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  Speaker 2: comes with the territory. It was fun when I got
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  Speaker 2: to be the younger player.
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  Speaker 3: It wasn't fun when you loved me those times that
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  Speaker 3: certainly was not fun at all. That was rude and mean.
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  Speaker 3: It was you know, you got to take care of
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  Speaker 3: your elders. Everybody, and she.
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  Speaker 5: Did not elders. It makes it sound like you're eighty
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  Speaker 5: years old.
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  Speaker 3: I feel eighty years old, that's for sure.
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  Speaker 2: It's it's I mean, it's always a really it's always
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  Speaker 2: a tough position to be in. But it's also a
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  Speaker 2: really great thing to have so many Americans in the draw,
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  Speaker 2: and I just seem to keep running into all of them,
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  Speaker 2: all of them.
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  Speaker 4: Another area of your game that I think really shows
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  Speaker 4: itself pretty well on the clay is your ability to
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  Speaker 4: play with some margin. I know that's something you guys
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  Speaker 4: have been working going. I remember watching you pretty early
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  Speaker 4: on when I moved down to Orlando, and I got
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  Speaker 4: to see you just ball strike and I'm like, man,
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  Speaker 4: she just pumps the ball so hard and threw like
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  Speaker 4: that's an ideal practice for me. I'd love to go
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  Speaker 4: out there we could just strike and strike it nice
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  Speaker 4: and pure. But now we're seeing you kind of take
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  Speaker 4: a couple steps back and incorporate a little bit of
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  Speaker 4: high a little bit of variety. Is that coming a
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  Speaker 4: bit more natural to you? Are you still having to
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  Speaker 4: think about it? Because I can attest as a player,
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  Speaker 4: it does take a little while for it to become
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  Speaker 4: a bit more natural to change up certain shots and
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  Speaker 4: the way that you go about certain balls. So at
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  Speaker 4: this point, with the confidence that you have of the
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  Speaker 4: year that you've had, that implementation of using variety a
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  Speaker 4: little bit more shape is that second nature?
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  Speaker 3: Now?
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  Speaker 4: Are you still having to remind yourself, Hey, don't get
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  Speaker 4: into this just you know, just ripping fest. Let's try
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  Speaker 4: to change it up.
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  Speaker 2: So I think when I'm playing well, and it's when
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  Speaker 2: you're out there and you're playing clear, I feel like
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  Speaker 2: that's when I'm kind of naturally knowing when to add shape,
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  Speaker 2: when to kind of inject pace, when to throw in
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  Speaker 2: the slice. I feel like, especially of clay, I have
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  Speaker 2: to be a little bit more mindful of it, just
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  Speaker 2: because if you hit a little too flat and a
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  Speaker 2: little too hard on clay and the ball doesn't really
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  Speaker 2: get through the court, you're taking time away from yourself.
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  Speaker 2: So that has been something, especially the swing, that I've
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  Speaker 2: had to be a little bit more mindful of. But
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  Speaker 2: I feel like the more matches I'm getting and kind
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  Speaker 2: of recognizing where I am in the court if I
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  Speaker 2: need time, I've gotten better kind of as the matches
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  Speaker 2: have gone knowing when to add a little bit more shape.
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  Speaker 1: There's this uncertainty. I think maybe I would imagine before
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  Speaker 1: you win a major, your run at Australia, when I
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  Speaker 1: look at those names now is a murderer's row, and
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  Speaker 1: it's more and more impressive when I see it. But
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  Speaker 1: I'm curious, what does having won a major change your
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  Speaker 1: mindset for when you're in your next major. Was there
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  Speaker 1: anything that maybe you learned that you didn't know before?
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  Speaker 5: Does it surprise you at all?
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  Speaker 2: I think the biggest thing that I kind of take
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  Speaker 2: from Australia was in the past I've been in I've
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  Speaker 2: been in a lot of quarterfinals, semifinals, I've been in
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  Speaker 2: a final before, and I felt like, in really tight moments,
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  Speaker 2: I kind of played a little bit too tentative and
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  Speaker 2: I backed off and I kind of just wanted to,
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  Speaker 2: you know, make the ball. And in Australia was really
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: challenging myself to just really go for it and not
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  Speaker 2: back down, just because I knew that's how I that's
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  Speaker 2: how I win matches. I win matches on my terms,
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  Speaker 2: So you know, being down big in moments and walking
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  Speaker 2: up to the line and knowing like, okay, I'm gonna.
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  Speaker 4: Have to go for this, right.
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  Speaker 2: Even I'm not gonna be super comfortable doing it, but
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  Speaker 2: I'd so much rather miss it going my way than
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  Speaker 2: hitting something's just trying to make it and then you
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  Speaker 2: walk up and you miss it and feel even worse.
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  Speaker 2: So I think the biggest thing is just almost challenging
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  Speaker 2: myself constantly to just make sure that even in the
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  Speaker 2: really tough type moments, I'm still going for it and
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  Speaker 2: I'm playing on my terms.
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  Speaker 1: That sounds like a life changing philosophy right there, also
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: coming out new in bookstores.
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  Speaker 3: I just go for it.
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  Speaker 5: I feel like you're a match against Kennon going back
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  Speaker 5: two matches ago, your old three match points, all three
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  Speaker 5: match points you went for. That's what was the most
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  Speaker 5: impressive thing, honestly you've done in tournament thus far.
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think the walking up to the line it was.
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  Speaker 2: It was a little bit of a balance of I
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  Speaker 2: want to make sure that I make her play the point.
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  Speaker 2: I don't want to give a free point away, but
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  Speaker 2: also I don't want to lay an egg. I can
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  Speaker 2: win her buy me, So it was a little bit challenging.
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  Speaker 2: But yeah, those were those are kind of the moments
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  Speaker 2: that I think you can walk away with your head
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  Speaker 2: held high if you are doing things on your terms,
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  Speaker 2: and if they don't go your way that day, then
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  Speaker 2: too good and they are.
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  Speaker 1: Going her way third time now in the quarterfinals, Madison
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  Speaker 1: Keys moving on. Next up, Coco B.
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  Speaker 4: Thank you so much, thank you,