US OPEN

September 1, 2020

Madison Keys

Press Conference

M. KEYS/T. Babos

6-1, 6-1

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Talk about your match today. It's great to obviously win your first-round match. What does it say when you win your first-round match in the manner that you did? What does that do for you psychologically going forward?

MADISON KEYS: I think a win is a win. Obviously to feel like I did a lot of things well is a bonus. I think I returned well. I think I served well. That definitely builds up my confidence.

At the end of the day it's just a win. I need to continue to do that and try to bring that level every day.

Q. Describe your personal interaction with the bubble and how it affects your preparation to play. Are you able to focus as you normally would? Give the fans a sense of what it's like to be in the bubble.

MADISON KEYS: I have kept to myself mostly. I have just been around mostly just my team, which is my trainer. That's pretty much it. I haven't been doing all that much.

It's not that out of the norm for me to sit in my hotel in New York and order food in. It's not completely different. It's obviously different, masks and social distancing and things like that. It's the norm of the world right now. It's very doable.

Q. A question about the preparation. Obviously hitting on these courts, things like that. Did there come a point during your preparation in your hitting that it started to click, the surface, what your game could do on it?

MADISON KEYS: It took me a couple of days to find that balance of using the court speed with my power, but also not taking time away from myself. That was fine-tuning, trying to figure out the balance there.

Honestly, it kind of just came the last couple of days. Being able to find just the right balance between not being too passive but not trying to go for too much too quickly just because the court is very fast.

Q. How does the speed with the types of balls you are playing with, is it tough to control the balls more than normal? Are they pretty much doing what you want them to do?

MADISON KEYS: I think for the most part it's good. A new ball, when it comes out, every once in a while it flies on you. But it's not super surprising just because the US Open Wilson ball is pretty lively already. Being on a surface that is skidding a little bit, is a little bit quicker, if you're not there, it can go. We've all had enough time here, and it's very expected at this point.

Q. What is your experience with suite life? Having a suite, it's quite a luxury, obviously something that players don't normally have. How different does that make actually your on-site days?

MADISON KEYS: It's been really nice to have. To have it is a massive privilege. I know not everyone has that. Having a place that I can just go and there's no one else and I can just sit there by myself is really nice.

I spend most of my time on-site there. I eat all my meals in there. I do a lot of my warmup in there. I stretch in there. I pretty much live in my suite (laughter). It's great to have.

I love that I can kind of peek out and see what's going on on Arthur Ashe. Really, really lucky to have it.

Q. What is easiest and what is most difficult about playing without the usual big-crowd atmosphere?

MADISON KEYS: The easiest is there's definitely no noise, so you can hear everything that's going on on the court.

The most difficult is definitely having to produce all of the energy yourself. We obviously all want to be out here and we all want to win. We're really excited to be back and competing. But not having that fan energy to get you through tough moments has been really difficult. It's been completely on us to create all of our own energy.

Q. In relation to the bubble, you actually were in a prebubble because you were in World TeamTennis. Describe that atmosphere.

MADISON KEYS: I was not at World TeamTennis. I played in the Charleston XO, which was a bit of a bubble in itself, but was not in Greenbrier.