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AUSTRALIAN OPEN

January 20, 2018

Madison Keys

Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

M. KEYS/A. Bogdan

6-3, 6-4

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. First week done. How do you rate the whole week?
MADISON KEYS: I'm pretty happy with it. I think overall I was playing really well and pretty smart. I feel good about it. Had a tough match today, so I'm really happy that I played well and got through that.

Q. You have talked about your preparation in the offseason. What was kind of the most important part after the wrist injury of getting back into shape?
MADISON KEYS: The biggest thing for me, the biggest thing for my team and why we decided to end my season a little bit early, was just to have enough time to dedicate completely to rehabbing my wrist, not hitting tennis balls and not feeling rushed coming back into the new season.

So I spent a lot of my time the first couple of weeks just doing forehands and wrist rehab, getting that strong, and feeling like I was fully confident in my left wrist again.

Q. Did you feel like that time off also helped you mentally to feel fresher coming into this season?
MADISON KEYS: Definitely. I finished the US Open and I was exhausted.

So as amazing as that run was, the combination of being exhausted from that and having a wrist that still wasn't 100% perfect, I just needed to kind of shut it down, calm down, and then I was really excited to start the new season.

Q. Did you take some time off completely from tennis during that time?
MADISON KEYS: Yeah, I did. I had about 10 to 11 weeks to work with, so I had a couple of weeks at the beginning and then a week for Thanksgiving in the middle.

Q. You have been in this position quite a few times now. I wonder, you're still very young, but how experienced will you feel getting into the second week, winning matches?
MADISON KEYS: I definitely feel way more comfortable than a couple of years ago in this position, but it also still feels like new and exciting. It's what we all work for. So a mix of comfortable but also very excited.

Q. The drama in the women's draw so far, a lot of upsets, long matches, Simona is having one right now. Do you feel like you're flying a little bit under the radar, that you're having straightforward matches, kind of getting through, and that's a good thing?
MADISON KEYS: I am always happy if I'm not the drama, and I feel like US Open I was the drama every night match that I played (smiling).

So it's a good position for me to be in, and I'm enjoying it.

Q. You talked the other day about the 16 seeds. In general, tennis is kind of aggressively adding new rules seemingly every day. You have the warmup. What do you feel about the new rules? Do you think that it's all positive or is there a possibility that kind of loses the soul of tennis if you kind of push too far?
MADISON KEYS: I honestly have no issue with the warmup clock and all of that. In a lot of ways it gives us a time we actually can see it so we can be more accountable ourselves instead of relying on the chair.

So I have no issues with any of that. I think the 16 seeds, I don't understand the point of it, but, I mean, I guess we need more drama (smiling) and more upsets.

It will be interesting, to say the least.

Q. Would you happily play, like in the next round, they play four-game sets, would you happily play that format or do you think that's kind of...
MADISON KEYS: I think that's getting a bit too far. I think the way that tennis is, I don't think we should start changing the structure of how we play matches and things like that. As far as the little rules to speed up the game a little bit, sure, but as far as changing it to Fast4 and things like that, I don't agree with that.

Q. Your siblings don't really watch tennis? Obviously tennis is kind of like to appeal to younger people. How...
MADISON KEYS: It wouldn't matter if we played three points for a match. My sisters would still not watch (smiling).

Q. Going back to the offseason just for a minute, when you did take time off away from tennis, what were you doing? Were you traveling, resting?
MADISON KEYS: Not really. I was just with friends and family. Not really doing anything. I feel like for a year that I didn't play a complete schedule. I traveled a lot and did a lot of things, so I just wanted to go home and be with some people that I hadn't gotten to see a lot during the year.

That was pretty much it.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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