Madison Keys Press Conference | 2024 US Open Round 1

congratulations strong start to your US Open assess your performance today I think I started a little nervous as most do first round of a slam but uh overall I think I played really well I think especially in the second set breaking and then getting broken back I think I did a really good job to kind of quickly get back on track and be able to close out the match pretty cleanly great thank you questions name and affiliation please uh I cor uh toone G from the guardian uh that was your first win since since Wimbledon I believe just it's obviously been a difficult summer could you describe I guess your summer and what's been like just getting back to Fitness to the point where you could you know perform at the highest level to it's um been a summer of a lot of time in the gym rehabbing um tried to play in uh Toronto but just was it was a little too fast um wasn't quite ready but uh I also felt like I took a lot of positives from that match just because I was still playing well and um it wasn't until late in the second set that things kind of went sideways so I felt like I wasn't that far off so being able to just kind of give myself a few more weeks just to get back 100% I think was really important and uh we've just been able to kind of do whatever we can in the six weeks that we've had were those days in the gym like like is it ever frustrating I guess or tedious I think the the frustrating thing is that it's like you work so hard to get the level of your Fitness and bass and all of that there and then one thing happens and all of a sudden it just seems like all of it is gone um and it's it's all of the small little things where it's you know you have to like it's baby steps and I think that's kind of the frustrating part where you just kind of keep thinking like a week ago I was fine like I could do anything and everything and now all of a sudden it's the baby steps of okay it's just like basic strength and then you can go onto the court and then you can start pushing the endurance side and um I think that's just it's just a very tedious process hi Maddie uh Alice Brown usopen.org you've talked before about your affinity for the US Open What's the energy like being back in New York after a tough summer I always love coming back to New York I have some absolutely amazing experiences here and I think being an American playing in front of an American crowd there's really no other feel like that it's it's definitely the loudest rowdiest crowd that you can play in front of and um having being in so many scenarios here where they've really pushed me through uh I always feel really great coming to the US Open welcome back um in terms of you know the clay season obviously was very good one for you and then obviously just a little bit of obviously disappointment and Wimbledon but did that wipe away kind of how you were feeling you know about your tennis about your level about your physicality like go you know before that or you know can can a tough result or tough injury kind of erase the the positives that you were feeling are you feeling better than some people might think that you are about everything I think it's I think I surprise people because I still say that match against Jasmine was I mean in my opinion it was like one of the greatest matches that I've ever played um and it was really fun up until the very end um and so I still have a lot of really great memories from coming back I mean through the clay and then obviously I did pretty well in eastborn once again and having some really good matches at Wimbledon and I mean that atmosphere on court one playing Jasmine was incredible it was so much fun and we were both playing so well and we were pushing each other and I felt like it was a match where we both kind of had to keep shifting what we were doing because the other one was catching up and changing what they were doing um so there's I mean great memories and there's still a ton of positives from it obviously it didn't end quite how I wanted it to end but I think that's I mean that's a reality of tennis it's a reality of sport sometimes that happens and you kind of just have to pick up all of the positives from the situation that you can and get back in the gym and keep going um I just I feel like this year has been like seven years condensed into one uh so it's still a little hard to like even remember the clay corn season really what have been your observations of Coco golf's development as a player and a person given how young she was when she joined the tour uh I think I mean I think from the start we kind of all knew that Koko was going to be an amazing player and she's incredibly mature and Carries herself in a way that I wish that I carried myself when I was her age um so it's been um I guess not really a surprise just because you could kind of see it from the very start but I think it's also very impressive how she's been able to continue to I mean through all of the pressure and all of the expectation that's been put on her um continue to do as well as she has can you talk a little bit about kind of how differently I guess listening to you describe the palini match I think like five six seven years ago maybe a result like that I'd be you'd be kind of a little bit more shattered you know by the result itself but it's a different perspective maybe now when these results happen do you is that specific to this match or does that a broader thing with you that's therapy okay but I mean like in terms of like what do you if you can expand on that um I think that that's just trying to just not live and die by every result and I know that's really hard um I think it's really hard especially for tennis players because everything is is I mean every result matters I mean we're lying if we say that we don't care but I think it's really hard when you grow up and the number next to your name means so much and it becomes really hard to kind of separate yourself from that number and the winning and the losing and I think it's even just when you win your phone is blowing up and you have you you know people want to talk to you after the matches and everything and you have to go into press and then you lose and it's not the same so I think it's hard when you grow up that way to not take every loss as this is the end of the world so it's been a lot of personal growth on my part um that I've been really working on just trying to take the experiences for what they are and not the you know Earth shattering disappoint that sometimes I think we kind of all can live in a little bit I feel like I kind of have to ask about how important then has has therapy I guess and sports psychology whatever been for you and your journey and your career and and how long have you been doing it um I've tried it on and off for a few years and I think that's the hard part about therapy is finding someone that fits for you and I think for me personally I've always tried specifically sports psychology and I think at the time I was always smart enough to pick up on what to say and do say the right things and do the right things but never really fully believe them 100% and never really fully buy into it and it just got to a point where I wanted to be just an overall happier person so I started trying to look at it from that point of view and if I could do that that and really buy into it and be really honest and vulnerable which is not my favorite thing to do with people um that a lot of good could come from it okay thank you everyone