THE CHAMPIONSHIPS

July 2, 2026

Madison Keys

Press Conference

M. KEYS/K. Swan

6-1, 6-4

THE MODERATOR: Please share your thoughts on the match.

MADISON KEYS: I think overall today, pretty good showing. I think being able to hold off the breakpoints in the first set and then being able to break right back on both occasions in the second set were really important.

And overall, just going out and playing solid and well enough I think is sometimes a good day.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. I know on court you were talking about you would love the Eastbourne courts to be here. Are Eastbourne courts your favorite courts on tour? I know of your success there. But what are your other favorite courts on other surfaces?

MADISON KEYS: I mean, don't get me wrong, I love the courts here. I just have done really well in Eastbourne, so if we could just somehow move those all over the world, and we only play on those, that would be ideal.

But also, I really love playing in Cincinnati. I think those courts have kind of always suited my game really well. Charleston on the green clay, have done well there.

Basically anywhere where I have done well, we could just play all of the tournaments there (smiling).

Q. You seemed to be really hitting to the court on your forehand. Had a big roar at the end. Wonder if you're feeling pretty stoked about certain points of your game at this point.

MADISON KEYS: Yeah, I think I have put a lot of emphasis on trying to play a bit more with my kind of serve and trying to hit a forehand off that first ball, really kind of get on my front foot at the first opportunity.

I feel like everyone on the tour is, I mean, everyone is so good and everyone moves so well that you don't really have the luxury of kind of slowly building the point.

If you have an opportunity, I think it's best to try to take it. I think sometimes I get a little bit too cautious on the first couple of balls. So it's been a big focus to kind of take the initiative a little bit earlier.

Q. Obviously you have already won a Grand Slam, so maybe you don't look at it like this, but when you see some of your other rivals, you know, maybe not playing at their absolute best coming into a Grand Slam, does it affect the way you think about anything? The draw is long, and there are a lot of players you have to get past. But does it matter if the tournament feels more open than it maybe has in the past?

MADISON KEYS: I don't think so. I mean, there has been tournaments and draws where you feel like they kind of open up, and you have a huge opportunity, and then you end up losing. Then I think about winning in Australia, and it was one of the toughest draws I have ever had to play, and that was the one that I happened to win.

I think it really just depends how you're playing. And I think sometimes we forget that when the draw opens up, we're forgetting that it's because other people are playing really well and taking the higher-ranked person out. So it doesn't necessarily mean that someone is playing badly and all of a sudden it's an easy draw.

I think the depth of the sport has just gotten so vast that every single draw feels incredibly tough (smiling).

Q. You're making also podcast where you share with your friends some very interesting dialogues. People want to somehow limit the tennis, because it's 24 hours. And you are, like, sharing more time, sharing things about tennis. What is the reason? It relaxes you, or...

MADISON KEYS: Are you asking because we want to shorten the calendar, or...

Q. No, no, no, it's because you're personal. You're so overloaded with tennis, the tour.

MADISON KEYS: Oh, yeah, yeah, Okay.

Q. And why you share tennis in your free time in a podcast with your friends?

MADISON KEYS: I feel like we don't talk about tennis that much, I feel. I think it was more so just it's kind of a way to show people about the kind of ins and outs of our lives. I think that giving people a little bit more insight on the kind of day-to-day things that happen and all of that, it doesn't feel like a job for any of us. And I think it's been really fun to kind of have something else to focus on, and we all care a lot about it.

So it doesn't feel like something that is a burden, that we're adding more onto our day. It also helps, we only film once a week. In the grand scheme of things, we can always find an hour, 90 minutes a week where it works for all of us, that we can kind of sit and. Honestly, it's just like the four of us sitting there and laughing together.

Q. Considering Eastbourne, do you feel like you have underperformed in this tournament? If so, why?

MADISON KEYS: I mean, it's obviously the slam where I've, I guess, done the worst. But I don't know. I think that obviously I would love to make it one step further and make a semifinal and go even further and make a final or be able to lift the trophy.

Like I said, a lot of times the game isn't fully dictated by you. So there's been times where I feel like I have played really well here, and I've simply lost because the person on the other side of the net played better.

I feel like that's kind of the hard part about tennis where I think a lot of us feel like maybe we underachieved or we could have done better and all that. But we don't always take into consideration that the person on the other side of the net was just better than us that day. And I think that's the really hard part about this sport specifically, because there's so little that you actually control.

Then I think especially on grass, there's always, I feel like it's just one of those surfaces where things can be going great, and then momentum can shift super quickly. It's just a tougher surface.

Q. In terms of the heat wave last week, I know heat is a topic at all tournaments, all Grand Slams now. Do you ever think about all the water being applied to keep the grass so pristine and green on these courts here at Wimbledon?

MADISON KEYS: Never considered it, to be totally honest. (Laughter.)

No. It's funny that you ask that, because I have not once ever considered the watering of the grass.

Q. Just something you don't even think about? You just come here and expect green every year, right?

MADISON KEYS: Yes, basically. (Laughter.)

And they always are, so that's probably why I have never thought about it.

Q. Are the courts playing differently because of the heat? It's been hot here the last couple of weeks, just in general.

MADISON KEYS: I don't know if I would say that they're playing differently because of the heat. I definitely think that they play kind of differently every single year.

I wasn't here during the bulk of the heat wave, and I didn't really get to practice on the court. So I feel like I don't have a great idea of if they're playing one way or the other. They're just playing how they have been playing the last four days.

Q. They're in a tight third set, Kenin and Anisimova. Two Americans. If Kenin came through, it would be one big win in a long time for her.

MADISON KEYS: Yeah, Sonya has the ability to play very, very good tennis. I played her last year in Roland Garros, and I'm pretty sure she had a match point. I mean, she's such a talented tennis player and her ability to kind of play with different spin and speeds, just kind of wrong-foot people I think is really unique and why she's had as much success as she does.

Obviously Amanda, having made the finals here last year, she's one of the best ball strikers in the game probably ever. Has one of the greatest backhands I think I've ever seen.

It's just one of those things where I think both of their games are very well-suited to grass but just kind of in the opposite ways.