THE CHAMPIONSHIPS

July 2, 2025

Madison Keys

Press Conference

M. KEYS/O. Danilovic

6-4, 6-2

THE MODERATOR: Just your thoughts on the performance today.

MADISON KEYS: Overall really happy with my match today. I think there are a few things that I wanted to improve upon after the first round, and I think I was able to do that today. Overall, happy.

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. I'm already moving ahead, but Siegemund next. She's a tricky player. How do you see her challenge on grass?

MADISON KEYS: I mean, she's always a tricky player. I think she's super crafty, so I think grass highlights that for her, and I think kind of all of her tangibles become even more of a weapon. So definitely going to have to be prepared for that.

You just kind of know that you're never really going to get the same ball twice. So if you go out looking for any sort of rhythm, you're not going to find it. I think just kind of knowing that going into the match is half the battle. Then just having a really solid game plan on how to kind of approach each kind of individual ball that comes at you.

Q. It's been a record number of seeds to lose in the first round, like a joint record ever since they have these seedings. Does you see that, and does it play in your head at all? Does it matter? Why do you think there are so many men and women's seeds to go out?

MADISON KEYS: I think when you are sitting and watching everyone kind of fall, it kind of adds a little bit of stress to the situation. I was pretty close in my first round, so I feel like I dodged a bullet a little bit.

Honestly, I think everyone is just kind of tired, and the season has been long already. It's hard. It's been, you know, six months. I feel like we've all played a lot of matches. So obviously the people that are ranked higher, in theory, have played more matches than others.

It's a marathon, not a sprint. There's bound to be at some point in the season where people have dips.

Q. What do you remember from when you were one of those on the outside, not a seeded player, and how it would affect your mentality when you saw seeds fall in terms of hope?

MADISON KEYS: I think, you know, when you are seeing some of the bigger names kind of fall and people going out and just kind of taking it to them, it just kind of inspired you to do the same.

Q. When you are a seeded player, what does it mean in terms of trepidation as you move forward? You gave kind of a sense of the tour's toll, people are tired, but how does it affect the mentality and all the matches thereafter now that you're in the third round?

MADISON KEYS: Like I said, I kind of dodged a bullet myself in the first round, and I feel like getting through that was kind of my own personal battle that I had to kind of get through.

I feel like once I was able to do that, even seeing all of the results that have kind of happened the last two days, kind of adds a little bit to the nerves, but I feel like for myself I kind of feel like I already got past it a little bit.

So, yeah, just I feel like now I have an opportunity to kind of play some of my best tennis.

Q. You talked about sort of like your change in your mind and sort of the overall kind of macro approach. In the moments in the matches are you experiencing and approaching the tense points differently than you would have a few years back, do you find? Or you just can't think about that while the match is going on?

MADISON KEYS: I think that the only thing that I have really kind of changed as far as my mentality within the matches is that I feel like in important points in the past I would maybe try to play almost a little bit too passive. So I think now it's just really going out and... honestly, my biggest goal when I go onto a tennis court is to walk off and know that I left it all out there and I have no regrets on if I played the right way or if I went after the things that I wanted to go after.

That's kind of just my mentality all of the time, but I think it's just even more highlighted in important moments.

Q. What do you think of the highlights packages that the WTA put together or that you get at the Grand Slams? Do you watch them? Do you think they give a fair and accurate representation of your matches, or are you, like, I swear I played better than that, or I played worse than that maybe?

MADISON KEYS: The highlight packages as in what they put on social media?

Q. Like on YouTube or the three minutes or five minutes or that sort of thing.

MADISON KEYS: I think it really depends on the match. There's definitely matches where I feel like sometimes you watch the highlights, and it doesn't really feel like the highlights from the match.

Then there's other times where it kind of seems like you're only watching highlights of the other person, and you're, like, I swear I was up 5-1, so a little confused as to how that happened.

Yeah, then there are other times where I think it's clipped together so well where you really get a good sense of how the match went and the score and all of that. I think it's kind of a mixed bag.

Q. I don't know if you saw yesterday, but Zverev spoke a little bit about loneliness on tour and how he's kind of struggling mentally. I know you've spoken extensively about how a psychologist has helped you get in the zone with your game at the moment. I wonder, how do you feel the conversation around mental health in tennis specifically has changed over the last few years, maybe over the course of your career in that do you feel like people are much more open about talking about that kind of thing? Are resources better than you remember them being at the beginning of your career?

MADISON KEYS: I think it's definitely gotten more open. I don't really remember it being a talking point much. I think more and more players are open to saying, I'm talking to someone. I would say there's probably more of us that are speaking to someone now than there was before.

Then I believe the ATP has their own people, but I know the WTA, obviously. We have people every single week at tournaments, which is super helpful. Just to have that support, I think they've done a really good job at really helping all of the players through what is a really tough career.

Q. You spoke about craft being really important on grass. This is received wisdom that grass is for big hitters. You've obviously played a few crafty players in recent weeks... Marketa, Tatjana. When you look at the draw and who you are playing next, would you rather place a crafty player or big hitter?

MADISON KEYS: Depends on who the crafty player is and who the big hitter is. I think that grass highlights certain talents very differently. Obviously the big hitters, the ball kind of moves through the court really easily and the big servers.

Then you have the craftier players who are able to kind of take the pace and hit these shots that are basically rolling at your feet. I think both have very different challenges.

I would probably rather play someone who hits big just because that's kind of I think how I play, so it feels like a little bit more of a rhythmic player that you are playing against, versus a crafty player you don't really know what you are going to get.

Q. A follow-up from a previous question. Zverev was incredibly poignant in his press conference. He went on and on saying how lonely he felt on the court and off the court, that he was at a loss. He wasn't motivated to get up in the morning. He didn't know what to do. When he was asked about possible therapy, he was saying, Well, maybe, who knows? Well, that's a paraphrase. You spoke eloquently about your own journey and talk therapy in Melbourne. If you could talk to players or just share what your thoughts are on therapy and its use, if you would, on the tour?

MADISON KEYS: I can only speak for myself. It's been incredibly helpful to me. I think a big change -- and I've tried sports psychologists in the past, and I think for me just everything being so focused on just the sport and just tennis was not as helpful as I needed it to be.

I think really going to someone and kind of looking at my overall life and kind of how that was influencing how I felt on the court probably made the biggest difference for me.

I feel like as tennis players, from a pretty young age, we are kind of -- it just kind of happens where our identity becomes very wrapped up in being a tennis player. That's great, but when you have the tough kind of weeks, months, years on tour, that can really take a toll on how you think about yourself as a person.

So being able to kind of dive into that and figure out how to separate the two and know that you're not just a tennis player. You're a full person that has all of these other really great attributes and other interests and just different things in your life. I think that was really a really important piece for me, and I think that kind of made the tennis a little bit easier.

Q. When you see teenagers having big success and all of a sudden they're under the spotlight, what goes through your head at all given what you went through as a teenager and everybody talking about you? Is it triggering in any way, sort of cringe-worthy? Do you want to give them any kind of warnings?

MADISON KEYS: I mean, it's not triggering to me in any way. I think the biggest thing that I -- I think the only thing that I think is that high pressure that they have a really great support system, and they don't go on Twitter (smiling).