ROLAND GARROS

May 31, 2025

Madison Keys

Press Conference

M. KEYS/S. Kenin

4-6, 6-3, 7-5

THE MODERATOR: Madison, congratulations. Not easy winning after saving three match points, so just tell us how you were able to do that and kind of clinch the win today.

MADISON KEYS: Yeah, obviously a really tough match. I think Sonya played especially well, and having to save those match points, I really just tried to dig deep. I really wanted to make sure that she won the point and I didn't give it away.

Happy to still be in the tournament.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. Well done. You obviously won some huge, very tight points in Australia. I don't think you saved a match point, but -- you did?

MADISON KEYS: Uh-huh.

Q. Sorry about that. Against Iga? That's right. My bad. So how has what goes through your brain changed over the years in terms of in those moments versus in past parts of your career?

MADISON KEYS: I think especially tonight I just kept thinking before each match point that, like I said, I wanted to make sure that I didn't give the point away. I wanted to make sure that I stayed tough and that she had to win the point. If she did, then great, I did my part, and I could walk away with my head held high.

So I really just wanted to kind of buckle down and make as many balls as possible. I was able to do that.

Q. Obviously the scheduling is a big talking point this week. Coco has spoken about it. Iga has spoken about it. Ons, of course. I wonder, what are your thoughts about the scheduling of woman's matches here? Do you think maybe you should come together to, you know, present interest of the WTA players in some way? Not only here but in general in tennis.

MADISON KEYS: I mean, I think women typically have night matches everywhere else, so I don't think it's a point of discussion at other tournaments. It's obviously been a hot topic here.

Seeing as there is only one match, I think that it's much different than other tournaments, but I think women's matches are very entertaining, and they have great value, and they deserve to be the feature match.

Q. What do you think the solution is here?

MADISON KEYS: The solution is to put them at night (smiling).

Q. No, because Jannik Sinner said, you know, because it's a short match, maybe we can put only if it's two matches, but if you can't put two matches, then it should be men.

MADISON KEYS: I don't get paid enough to make those decisions, so I feel like that's on the tournament directors.

Q. You do get paid a lot by these tournaments, but maybe not...

MADISON KEYS: Not for those decisions though (smiling).

Q. You play Hailey Baptiste next. I remember your match in D.C. years ago, which was her first tour-level match where she came out of roughly nowhere to win that one. What do you remember about that? You have played since then, as well. What do you make of her as a player and as a next opponent for you?

MADISON KEYS: I think Hailey is a great player. I think she's been a great player, and I feel like she's really kind of found her form the past, I would say, year and a half, two years, but especially the past couple of months she's had some really great wins and is playing some really good tennis.

I'm not surprised. I have seen her growing up. I think she's had incredible talent the entire time. So really happy for her to see all of the success that she's having, kind of putting that all together and climbing up the rankings.

All that said, I think it's going to be a really tough match. She's very talented. She has a lot of tangibles, and she knows how to kind of mix up paces, but can also, all of a sudden, absolutely crack the ball.

Going to be a really tough match, but looking forward to it.

Q. Before Australia I watch you a lot, and you have lost matches that you could have won.

MADISON KEYS: Thank you.

Q. No, no, but little things made the difference. But after Australia, I think everything is possible with you, after these special matches that you won. What are your feelings now for what's coming up in this tournament, because anything is possible?

MADISON KEYS: I think that I have, in the past, kind of continued to put myself in positions to get deep in tournaments and fallen short some of the time, but obviously in Australia I felt like it was finally the opportunity that having the experience that I had under my belt, I was finally able to cross that finish line and do that.

I think the whole point of the sport is to constantly put yourself in the position to make runs and have big wins and all of that. So I think that I'm going to continue to kind of just focus on that and kind of rely on that experience that I have now had to win big matches.

I feel like, you know, using that experience worked well tonight.

Q. You hit a couple big aces in that last game as you served out the match. I'm wondering, when you hit those shots, if you're going for trying to hit a clean ace all the time, if you see something where she's standing... You're nodding. Okay. So how do you know, like -- how do you see a green light in your mind for, Okay, I've got this in one shot?

MADISON KEYS: I feel like for me my mentality on my serve is always a lot better when I'm trying to be aggressive.

I feel like if I am trying to be a little bit more cautious, it kind of is a little bit more tentative. I don't really go for it enough.

I think walking up to the line, knowing that I have a big serve and that I'm pretty precise at hitting it where I want it to go, I think just walking up to the line, that's the No. 1 goal is I'm going to go for it. I'm going to try to hit an ace up the T.

Then if it kind of veers one way or the other, that's okay. I just feel way better if I miss it a little bit wide but going for it. That feels ten times better than going up and trying to hit a three-quarters serve and missing it and then just feeling terrible about it.

Q. Did you see something in her return position that was an opening for you?

MADISON KEYS: I think that she was guarding the wide a little bit more, especially on the deuce side. But I also think that a lot of times when I go up to the line, I kind of just pick a spot and go for it.

Q. Physically, do you feel different late in these matches than you used to, in terms of just your fitness being better? And to that point, have you not mastered but gotten better at sort of managing the stress and exhaustion of these sort of two-week things with your routines in between matches and on nights like this and off the court?

MADISON KEYS: I think that fitness-wise -- I mean, I feel very fit, and I feel like I could play long matches. I keep laughing, because I was like the losingest winner of Australia ever. Clearly I can be out on the court for a really long time.

I think the bigger thing I have really had to focus on is how to manage my stress in matches. I think a lot of times that's kind of where I would bail out of points early. I don't think it was really a physical issue. I think it was more mentally trying to shorten the points a little bit too soon just to kind of rush to get to the finish line.

So I think that has been more of what I have had to focus on versus just straight-up fitness. But I think that that, and then, weirdly, on off days I actually am trying to focus on actually enjoying the tour a little bit more and where I am in the cities and going out.

I think in the past, I would kind of almost become a little bit of a hermit during these events just because I always wanted to save all my energy. Never wanted to maybe be tired for a match. But all of a sudden I was in these cities for two weeks, and I never saw anything other than my hotel room, and that was not the life that I wanted to live.

I wanted to really kind of enjoy my time on tour, which I think helps my performance.

Q. What made you make that change to decide to want to enjoy life on tour more?

MADISON KEYS: I think it was really just, I have had so many years on tour, and I would go home and, you know, people would ask me, Oh, have you seen this? I was, like, No. Have you seen that? I was, like, I legitimately saw the tennis center and my hotel room for 15 days straight.

I just didn't want it to be like that. We get to come to all of these amazing cities and places, and I didn't want to keep going to the same three restaurants that I had been to for 15 years.

That was kind of just the push where I kind of just wanted to get out a little bit more, and then from there, I noticed that I felt even better on the court, just because I actually had a life outside of tennis, which felt like a little bit more balance. Then from there, it was kind of like, Oh, I guess I can do this.

Q. For me, one of your most impressive shots this year has been your backhand down the line. Just curious what your relationship with that shot is? It's obviously a very difficult one, but I think you have been hitting it really well.

MADISON KEYS: Bjorn is going to be devastated to hear you say that. He hates when I take my backhand up the line.

Q. Why?

MADISON KEYS: Because he thinks that I should take cross 99% of the time, and I typically go for something ridiculous down the line and I make it, and I look at him and give him a funny face.

I really like it, and I'm glad that I have you as backup for my next argument that I have with him (smiling).

Q. Can you just tell us what you have actually visited once when you were on tour recently? When you say, Go out and look at things, have you seen anything in Paris so far?

MADISON KEYS: In Paris, last year I did one of the bus tours so I could actually see a lot of the sites. In Rome, we did a Colosseum tour. I visited some of the kind of wine bars in some of the local, just kind of neighborhood spots.

Q. Related to that, a lesson we all, in this room, could learn from, when did that start for you? When did you first start making an effort to get out of your hotel room and away from the tennis centers?

MADISON KEYS: I really, really started trying to do it -- well, honestly, it kind of started during United Cup when I played whatever year that was, 2023. Which I still say is the most fun week of my entire life on the tennis tour.

I mean, we went out to dinner all the time as a big group. We were going to escape rooms. We were just doing a lot of things, and it kind of carried from there where we would be in random cities, and Jess and Des would want to go to an escape room, so we started doing that.

Then we occasionally would all go to dinner together. It kind of snowballed into that, and I kind of realized that I like actually spending time with my friends on tour outside of the tennis facilities. Like I said, it kind of added a nice balance to my life where I wasn't just a tennis player, and I feel like especially these long events, it's very easy to kind of get sucked into the same routine, and all of a sudden you blink, and it's 12 days later, so yeah.