NATIONAL BANK OPEN

August 4, 2026

Madison Keys

Press Conference

M. KEYS/A. Ruzic

6-1, 6-2

THE MODERATOR: Madison, talk us through your match a little bit, how you felt on the court and your performance.

MADISON KEYS: Overall, I feel like I played pretty well today. It's always good to get your first win after you're switching surfaces again into the start of the swing.

So, all-in-all, happy with the win and looking forward to the next round.

THE MODERATOR: Questions?

Q. How are you feeling at this stage of the season and switching from the grass, coming into the hard courts here in Toronto?

MADISON KEYS: Feeling pretty good. I haven't always done the best in Toronto, so it's good to get a win here and play some good tennis.

Looking forward to hopefully just kind of continuing to work on some of the things that we've been working on and actually implementing those in matches, which I think I did pretty well today. Just kind of keep that as the core focus moving forward.

Q. Is there any reason why Toronto's given you trouble, or is it just sort of the placement and the switch of the surfaces that lends itself to perhaps more upsets and surprises?

MADISON KEYS: I think it's just one of those things where it just kind of happens that way. I don't think there's any specific reason. Hopefully we'll right the ship this year.

Q. Overall, how do you see your season, and is there anything in particular you're looking forward to incorporating in your game or focusing on as this North American hard court swing plays out?

MADISON KEYS: I think this year there's been kind of some moments of good tennis, moments that I've been a little bit disappointed in how I've played.

I think the beauty of tennis is that it kind of, no matter where you are in the season, there's always time and there's always opportunity.

I think just kind of getting into a better mindset of making sure that I'm focusing on just trying to play the way that I want to play, and do the things in matches that we've been practicing.

I think sometimes in matches it's easy to kind of fall back into bad habits, or just kind of play in a more comfortable way, even though that's not what you necessarily have been practicing.

I think if I can take the rest of the season and kind of walk off the court every single day knowing that I was doing what we've been practicing, that I went out and I tried to execute the way that I wanted to, and then it just ends up being, did I execute well enough or not. Then I think you walk away from the rest of the season being happy.

Q. At Wimbledon you played Linda Noskova, the eventual champion, in the round of 16. From your point of view, does losing, it was a pretty tight match, even though it was straight sets. Does losing to someone who goes on to win the title, does that give you more confidence as a player, or does it piss you off like saying, Damn, that should be me. What's your type of mindset on that type of thing?

MADISON KEYS: Well, it's better to lose to someone who wins than someone who gets killed the next round. That feels pretty bad usually.

But there's also a little bit, like, especially in a match like that, where it's, like, I felt like I had some opportunities, and I definitely could have at least gotten it into a third set and made it a little bit trickier potentially.

Those are the kind of matches where you're like, Damn, if I had just done a couple of things, who knows what could have happened.

But I will say, I was walking to press and people kept saying, like, Oh, tough match, tough match. And I'm like, It's fine, she's going to win.

I mean, she was just playing such great tennis that, being on the other side of the net, I was like, I would be shocked if she didn't walk away with the title.

Q. So you anticipated her winning the title? Did it feel like that would be the kind of a match where that could decide the winner of the tournament going into it?

MADISON KEYS: I don't know if I would say that that's where my mindset was, but I definitely felt like playing that match and just kind of seeing how she held her nerve in tight moments, and the tennis that she was coming up with in those moments, there was no doubt in my mind that she was, in my opinion, the favorite after that match.

Q. You got to play in the first whole revamped mixed doubles at the US Open last year with Frances. Curious, what was your experience like, and would you consider doing it again in the future?

MADISON KEYS: We were the first match on and we lost pretty quickly, and I kind of said that that was probably it for me (laughing). That was kind of the end of my doubles career. I'll have to rethink if I'll ever take the doubles court again.

But it was really fun, and it was great to see how the fans received it. I think just kind of seeing how the fans were so excited about it, the players were super into it, I think was really, really cool. So I'll be a fan for sure from the stands, not on the court.

Q. Do you think tennis needs more things like that in this day and age to connect with younger audiences, audiences that are looking for different types of things in the sport? Is that one example, and do you have any other suggestions perhaps that could make the sport, kind of grow the sport and make it a little bit more cool for the next generation?

MADISON KEYS: I think that there's definitely opportunities to kind of shake things up a little bit and get away from kind of the tennis purist ways that we've kind of been in. Kind of get more people to play, get more eyes on the sport and all of that.

But I say that, and I'm also like the purist tennis purist ever. I fight change more than anyone.

I think the way that the US Open did it was really, really entertaining.

I think, like, the way that the Australian Open did that 1 Point, the 1 Point Slam and things like that. I think there's so many creative ways that we can get more eyes on the sport.

I think the sport is incredibly exciting right now, so I think if you can just get people to kind of buy in for that first step, then they will be hooked.