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AUSTRALIAN OPEN

January 29, 2015

Madison Keys

MELBOURNE, VICTORIA

S. WILLIAMS/M. Keys
7-6, 6-2
An interview with:
MADISON KEYS

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Congratulations. What a tournament.
MADISON KEYS: Thanks. I'm really happy to have gotten this far in a tournament. It's my first one. Just looking forward to having more. Hopefully have a couple where I'm with the trophy at the end of the week.

Q. How do you feel you handled the moment in terms of nerves, tactics?
MADISON KEYS: I think I handled the moment pretty well. I definitely had a good start, so nerves didn't totally play into that. I thought I handled myself pretty well in that last serving game of mine. But, I mean, she played really well. She served really well. It was pretty much impossible for me to break her serve. So, you know, great job to her today.

Q. How is the adductor?
MADISON KEYS: It's okay. It's not perfect. But, you know, I had plenty of tape on it, I had plenty of medication. Did my best.

Q. Didn't affect you at all?
MADISON KEYS: I'm not going to sit up here and make excuses for today. So, you know, it was what it was. I did my best. She played really well. All credit to her.

Q. Prematch you said you wanted to focus on what you could do, not worry so much about her. Were you happy you were able to do that?
MADISON KEYS: Yeah, I was. I think in that situation you can almost get overwhelmed if you start focusing on Serena being on the other side of the court. So, you know, I really just tried to focus on myself and play within myself. I thought I did a pretty good job.

Q. You mentioned the serve, but what is the quality of her ball? What is it like compared to other players?
MADISON KEYS: I mean, her ball's not like anyone else's. It comes hard; it comes deep. You never have the feeling of I can control every ball that comes towards me. She's definitely one of the very few that can hit like that.

Q. Were you surprised or pleased with how your game stacked up against her? Looked like you had control in a lot of those rallies. Hitting a heavy ball. Were you surprised she was struggling a little bit handling your pace?
MADISON KEYS: Yeah, I was. I thought there was definitely a lot of points where I was controlling the point, was getting ahead in the point, staying in longer rallies, and things like that. That's definitely something I'm happy about. That's something that I'm going to keep working on.

Q. There have been a bunch of stats that have surfaced saying talking about your higher groundstrokes speeds than anybody on the men's or women's tour right now. Do you feel like you can out-hit anybody at all times?
MADISON KEYS: I don't really think about it, honestly. I kind of just go out and hit the ball. So the fact that it's coming off my racquet that hard is nice. But like I had that stat at the French Open and I lost first round, so it doesn't really say much (smiling).

Q. People are wondering how far you can go in this game. In your mind now, how far do you think you can go?
MADISON KEYS: I think this week has definitely more shown to me, more than anyone else, that I can play the top players and I can do well against them. I can play the No. 1 player in the world in a pretty close match. So I think for me that's inspiration for every time I'm on a practice court to keep working, keep getting better so I can have more and more weeks like that.

Q. In terms of this run, what pleased you the most inside yourself?
MADISON KEYS: I think just handling the moment is probably what I'm most happy about. I think at times it got a little overwhelming in the fact that I was able to manage and do so well and able to get through that is what I'm most happy about.

Q. Anything in particular Serena said to you at the net?
MADISON KEYS: Just, Great fight, great match, good luck. You know, I said the same, Good luck for next round. That was pretty much it.

Q. Can I ask you a stupid question?
MADISON KEYS: Maybe.

Q. Why are you a good tennis player?
MADISON KEYS: Why? I don't know. I think, you know, for me it's just been I try to work as hard as I possibly can. For me, even this week, as great as it is, I still want more. I think I will forever be that way. So I think for me it's just never being satisfied with what I've done and always just wanting more and more.

Q. You're going to have your highest ranking ever. How do you stay in this and try to avoid what might be an easy letdown after all the excitement this week?
MADISON KEYS: I think, again, it's just doing what I was doing all off-season: putting in the hours, doing my best on the practice court, staying in shape. That's really all that I can ask myself to do.

Q. Maria Sharapova said earlier after playing you last year she wasn't surprised by the progress you've made throughout this tournament. Are you surprised in yourself? Could you have expected yourself to be where you are now a fortnight ago?
MADISON KEYS: I think it's one of those things where I wanted it, and it's one of those things that you know, those mornings you don't want to get out of bed, these are the moments that make yourself get up, go to practice, and do things like that. So I've definitely put in the work. I'm just really happy to see that it's paying off. Did I think it was going to happen here? Not particularly. But I'm very happy that it did.

Q. The other day you said your sisters do a really good job on keeping you humble. What do you think they'll do now to keep you humble?
MADISON KEYS: Well, my sister actually sent me a really nice message. She actually watched my match. But, I mean, other than that, I have amazing sisters. They're always there to either bring me up or put me back down on the ground. I mean, they just treat me like I'm their older sister. They don't treat me any other way. I don't expect them to.

Q. You're now 20th ranked Madison Keys, Grand Slam semifinalist. Everyone is going to see you coming. You're marked now. You're no longer the underdog. How do you feel about that?
MADISON KEYS: It's one of those things where eventually in your career, it kind of switches from being the young up-and-comer to someone who has had results and the other person is trying to raise their level to play. I think it's a privilege. I'm just going to do my best to try to stay here.

Q. People often talk about the intensity that both Maria and Serena play with. Is there any way to compare the two now that you've faced both of them?
MADISON KEYS: I think it's very similar. They're both very intense players. And I think that intensity, when they play each other, gets even higher. So I think the final on Saturday will be very entertaining. But, I mean, they're just both such competitors. They're hands down two of the biggest fighters that we have right now.

Q. You've been pretty quiet on Twitter while in Melbourne. What is the emoji to sum up your two weeks here?
MADISON KEYS: I think pretty much just the smiley face. Can't go wrong with the plain old smiley face.

Q. Going with the classic?
MADISON KEYS: Going with the classic, yeah.

Q. Are you going to do any shopping now?
MADISON KEYS: I think a lot of it's just going to go in my bank account. I came here and told myself I was going to buy myself one nice thing, and I'm sticking to that.

Q. Anything in particular you're going to buy?
MADISON KEYS: We'll see. I haven't decided yet.

Q. There hasn't been a Lindsay question yet. Could you have done this without her?
MADISON KEYS: You mean there hasn't been a Lindsay question today. No, she's really helped me. She's part of the reason why I've been so quiet on Twitter. It's her saying that it's very easy to get sidetracked, to get caught up in everything. So having her to help me through this has been amazing.

Q. The second serve today was pretty critical in the match. Did you hit your second serve well or could you do better? How do you think Serena handled it today compared to other players?
MADISON KEYS: I think I could have hit it better, but I also don't think I hit it badly. She does an amazing job at attacking slower serves. I really wasn't even hitting that slow of a serve, but she was taking advantage of it. You know, it's one of those things where I'm going to have to go back and just try to get it better so that in those circumstances it doesn't happen so much again.

Q. Talk about the last service game that went on and on. What was going through your mind?
MADISON KEYS: Anytime I had a second serve on her match point, it was really, Just don't double-fault. Luckily I didn't. And then, you know, it was just, Try to get this game, try to keep fighting, try to stay in the match. I managed to. Then she just played too good of a game the next game.

Q. Fed Cup, Serena said she would like you to play some of her games for you. A chance to spend time with someone like that?
MADISON KEYS: Anytime I can spend time around Venus or Serena, it's obviously a privilege. Obviously I can learn a lot with them.

Q. Are you planning on playing Fed Cup with the adductor issues?
MADISON KEYS: We'll see. I kind of have to see how quickly I can recover from this. Still kind of up in the air about it.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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