Photo credit: BNP Paribas Open Facebook
Coffee junkie Madison Keys knows all about the satisfaction of slow-brewed success.
Keys made a major statement seizing her maiden major at the Australian Open in January.
A courageous Keys dethroned two-time defending champion Aryna Sabalenka 6-3, 2-6, 7-5 in an inspirational AO showdown pitting premier power players that escalated into stunning slugfest on Rod Laver Arena.
A bold Keys beat the world’s top two in succession in her superb Melbourne run. Confounding Iga Swiatek at crunch time, Keys saved match point to spark a thrilling 5-7, 6-1, 7-6(8) comeback win in the AO semifinals.
Keys arrives in Indian Wells armed with the confidence that comes from winning a maiden major—and a mission aiming to become the first American woman since Serena Williams in 2001 to lift the BNP Paribas Open trophy.
“I think that the U.S. women have pretty consistently done really well. And I think right now it's obviously, you know, we're all doing really well,” Keys told the media in Indian Wells today. “I think it's probably been a little while since there has been so many American women doing as well as they are.
“But I'm really excited. I think not only are there the names that everyone obviously knows and are a little bit more established, but there's also a ton of up-and-comers that are doing really, really well.
“I would not be surprised if you saw some really great results from the U.S. women.”
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Three of the world’s Top 5—No. 3 Coco Gauff, No. 4 Jessica Pegula and No. 5 Keys—have each won titles recently with Gauff reigning as WTA Finals champion and Pegula winning Austin. World No. 8 Emma Navarro, the fourth American in the Top 10, is coming off a crushing double bagel conquest in the Merida Open final.
All face challenges in Palm Springs.
The fifth-seeded Keys could play the 10th-seeded Navarro in the round of 16. Pegula could meet former French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko in the round of 32 and Gauff could face Emma Raducanu in a second-round clash of former US Open champions.
Playing with a new Yonex racquet, new polyester strings, a new step-up serve and renewed confidence, Keys carries a 14-1 record, including a perfect 8-0 mark in three setters, into Tennis Paradise. Still Keys has typically enjoyed conditions at the Miami Open better than in the elevation of Indian Wells where she can struggle to keep the ball between the lines and her best result was a 2022 quarterfinal appearance.
The 30-year-old Keys credits her strengthened mental game, specifically learning to play amid massive major pressure, with cracking the code of Grand Slam success.
“I think there was just a lot of kind of being honest with myself and kind of talking through things, and I think the tough part and the beauty of having to have just really honest conversations with yourself, because I think a lot of times you don't really know why you kind of feel that way or what's going on,” Keys said of tightening up under stress. “But I think just kind of trying to do some introspection and peel back the layers, you start kind of piecing things together.
“I think for whatever reason, for a long time, I just had this notion that top players and the players that were winning the big tournaments just somehow are able to kind of turn off their nerves and just not have to deal with them. And I don't know why I had that thought or where I got that from, but that's just kind of how I thought things went.”
These days, Keys no longer presses the panic button. She tries to swing freely and accept the consequences.
“So for me, when nerves would finally start happening, it was an immediate kind of panic of, well, now I'm not going to be able to play well because people can't win with these feelings,” Keys said. “And again, I don't know why that came into my head, but it just kind of took talking through things to finally figure it out, and then just a lot of work. And it's been, I mean, over a year of kind of working through things and getting more and more comfortable on the court, working through that.”
Hall of Famer Lindsay Davenport, Keys’ long-time friend and former coach, says her magical Melbourne run was also the product of some shrewd adjustments she made with husband and coach Bjorn Fratangelo.
Adopting a step-up service motion, Keys generates more power from her lower body while diminishing some stress on her shoulder. The decision to switch from her heavier Wilson Blade, the frame she’d used for much of her career, to a lighter and more powerful Yonex racquet also gave Keys easier access to power.
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Davenport suggests a stronger Keys is not only constructing smarter points—she’s shown the stamina to go toe-to-toe with the best and prevail in physical three-set duels.
“In tournament after tournament Madison was coming up with a leg injury, and the shoulder had started to bother her in the last few years,” Davenport told the media in a Tennis Channel conference call to promote the network’s BNP Paribas Open coverage. “So they did a lot of work on her serve.
“Mat Cloer, a great USTA coach, was also on court with them involved in trying to how do we get her serve to remain effective but take pressure off of certain areas of her body so she doesn't get injured when she comes to the quarters and semis of a tournament? She now changed where she now drags her foot up.”
Significantly, Keys made the service motion and racquet switches last year, by design said Fratangelo, so she’d be comfortable with both by the time the Australian Open started.
“It was uncomfortable for her last fall, but trying to keep the bigger picture in mind and trying to serve better down the road, which paid off in Australia. Physically that's the best I've ever seen her body hold up,” Davenport said. “It used to be when the clock got to about—I used to get nervous at about two hours, like an hour, 45, an hour, 50 in a match. Like, will her body hold up? Even if she gets through this, will her body hold up tomorrow?”
“Obviously the Swiatek match followed by the Sabalenka match, and her body just was fine. That was a huge change from any other tournament where she was running deep. Typically the body would start to break down as the tournament went on.”
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Grand Slam success hasn’t changed Keys—though it has altered her living arrangements. Keys and husband and coach Bjorn Fratangelo welcomed a new roommate upon their return from that magical Melbourne fortnight: the Daphne Akhurst Memorial Cup has its own room in the house.
“It's very large, so it's currently just sitting in our guest bedroom until we have a proper space for it,” Keys told the media in Indian Wells.