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ROGERS CUP

July 30, 2016

Madison Keys

Montreal, Quebec, Canada

M. KEYS/K. Kucova

6-2, 6-1

An interview with:

MADISON KEYS

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. How do you rank how you're playing right now?
MADISON KEYS: Yeah, I think I'm playing pretty well. Today I felt like I was a lot more consistent. I didn't have that lapse in the middle of the match. Really happy with how everything went.

Q. Are you relieved to go to your first WTA final knowing she had a magical week over the past days?
MADISON KEYS: Yeah, I knew she was going to be playing tough. She's obviously beat a lot of good players. I knew I was going to have to come out and play my best.

But, yeah, I'm very excited to be in the final here.

Q. Did you have a different approach mentally after your matches against Venus and yesterday? Did you do anything differently at the beginning of the second set?
MADISON KEYS: I just knew I had to keep staying aggressive. I think the two matches before I got a little bit passive, was kind of waiting for them to make the mistake, where I play a lot better when I'm going for my shots.

So from the very start of the second set, I just kept that same mentality.

Q. What are your thoughts on Halep's game? How are you thinking to tackle this tomorrow?
MADISON KEYS: She's obviously a great player. She's playing really well. She gets a lot of balls back, which is one of her biggest strengths.

But her ability to get that extra ball and become, you know, the one that's in charge of the point is what she's so good at.

Tomorrow I'm going to have to really be good at making those extra balls and also just knowing she is going to get a lot of balls back, and not get frustrated.

Q. The Wimbledon match against Simona, if you don't cramp in that match, do you think it's yours? Do you look back on it like that?
MADISON KEYS: I don't think you can say for sure, like, Oh, I was going to win that. Obviously, it was kind of in the back of my mind the middle of the second set.

But, I mean, you never really know. I know I was playing really well at the beginning and I know it was a really tight match. Knowing that gives me some confidence going into this match even though things didn't go quite how I wanted them to.

Q. Can you tell us what you think Thomas has brought to your game and your approach to tennis.
MADISON KEYS: I think he's brought a consistency to it. I think he's also brought a much better focus. I think he's really good about knowing when I lose focus, he gives me a second to try to regroup. That way I don't have lapses where I'm just mindlessly hitting the ball.

Q. That's a 50-minute victory to reach your second big final. How normal does this feel to you at this point?
MADISON KEYS: Definitely not very normal. But it feels really good. I'm really happy that this year I've been much more consistent. You know, that was my whole goal last year, to be more consistent. The last couple of months have really made me feel good that I've been achieving that.

Q. Tomorrow the final is going to be at 1:00, fairly hot. Is it something you're going to do something to prepare specifically for?
MADISON KEYS: No. I was in Florida before this for two weeks. It was like 42 degrees every day. I think I'll be okay (smiling).

Q. When you're in the midst of a run like this, not just this week, but how new does this feel to you, or is this kind of old hat at this point, this is what you expect of yourself, winning the matches you're supposed to win?
MADISON KEYS: Kind of both. It feels new just because I've obviously never won this many matches consistently in a row. But then it also feels like this is kind of what I'm expecting of myself, going out and playing good tennis, but also when I'm not, being able to figure it out. That's kind of the standard I've been setting for myself.

Now that I'm going out and doing that, I've just been really happy with it.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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