US OPEN

September 3, 2020

Madison Keys

Press Conference

M. KEYS/A. Bolsova

6-2, 6-1

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Can you just describe your effort today and how you feel your game is progressing at this particular stage of the tournament, Grand Slam tournament, compared to other Grand Slams that you have played in?

MADISON KEYS: I'm very happy with how I have been playing so far. I think I served well and I returned really well again today. That's been a big focus for me.

I am really happy with all of that, but at the end of the day it's just another win. I'm looking forward to continuing to get better and keep playing better and better hopefully as the tournament goes on for me.

Q. Can you describe for the fans your progress from when you came and everybody came back from the pandemic and started to play, how you feel you were playing then compared to how you're playing now? Because everybody obviously was in different situations.

MADISON KEYS: I was lucky enough to have access to a court to practice for the majority of the time. So I was able to do that. Not having competitive matches was a challenge, and that's something that has taken a lot of focus to try to get my competitive tennis back as quickly as possible since we didn't really have any sort of lead-in to going straight into two really big tournaments.

So that was a little bit tough, but I was incredibly fortunate to be able to practice throughout the majority of the pandemic.

Q. Can you explain for the people who may not be that familiar, the physical preparation and the mental preparation, and what it takes mentally to get through a tournament that you didn't have that practice either for a number of months as your opponents did, as well.

MADISON KEYS: It's just a little bit different than playing, just going out and practicing every day. You all of a sudden have someone on the other side of the net who wants to win just as badly as you do. And to keep yourself competitive but not getting too down on yourself when you're not playing well. And being able to bring your own energy and get yourself back into that competitive mode is something that takes a little bit of time.

Having to do that in practice isn't usually what we have to do, just because there's a lot of tournaments and we keep that momentum all the time.

So that was a bit of a struggle, but I know it's something that we're all dealing with. And I think for the most part watching everyone, it's been really impressive how quickly everyone has gotten that back.

Q. You have a very good record against Alize Cornet. Can you just talk about what the keys are in terms of playing her in the next round.

MADISON KEYS: I think Alize is really good at getting a lot of balls back and just making you play that one extra shot. So being really patient and waiting for the right shot and not getting discouraged if she does run down an extra ball or two is always one of the biggest challenges when playing her.

Q. In terms of just playing in a controlled environment, is it easier to, in this situation, to focus on the task at hand, or is it more distracting because everything is so different and not maybe what you're used to at the US Open?

MADISON KEYS: It's a little bit of both. It's obviously different, so it's, I think, the first time you do anything you're a little bit uneasy about it. But at the end of the day we're on the same site, playing on the same courts, using the same balls. It's the whole same atmosphere.

So I think it was pretty easy to get into a new routine. And I think having Western & Southern Open beforehand really helped, because it very quickly forced us to get back into tournament mode.

So having that has been really beneficial. At the end of the day I go from the courts to the hotel, back to the courts, so there is really no distractions. It's very easy to not get distracted.

Q. A few players, especially the ones that were based in Florida, are all saying that, and I didn't realize this, but most of you don't have gyms at home to work out at because you're normally touring and things. There was a scramble for a lot of players to get equipment, even just basic equipment, fitness stuff. Did you and Bjorn have to deal with that at all or no? What was the stuff that was hard to get?

MADISON KEYS: So my fitness trainer actually was, happened to be setting up a gym in his garage right as everything started to close. So he was basically the last person to start putting orders in when things were still in stock.

Some things did still take a little while to get, like squat rack, squat bar, basically any dumbbells. Just really basic things. It was as if everyone knew that we were going to be in lockdown for months, and everyone prepared a home gym.

So there were some things that were a little bit harder to get, but I think within probably four, five weeks we pretty much had the closest to a full gym with minimum equipment.

Q. Up until that point, was there any problems working out and staying fit or were you doing those, you know, milk jugs, I don't know, rudimentary things in order to keep fit? Or in your situation were you chilling and waiting until things were settled and getting back on the horse?

MADISON KEYS: We were getting as creative as we could. We had some stuff, so we could kind of manage. It became a little bit difficult because we were adding, like, resistance bands to weights because we didn't have heavier weights. It was a lot of creative thinking, trying to make the best of it.

But after, again, after -- I would say at most six weeks, we had pretty much everything that we wanted.