ADELAIDE INTERNATIONAL

January 14, 2022

Madison Keys

Press Conference

M. KEYS/C. Gauff

3-6, 6-2, 7-5

THE MODERATOR: Through to another final. Your thoughts on the game as a whole? How did you go?

MADISON KEYS: I'm real happy with how today went. I didn't start off on the best foot, and I think Coco played really well at the start. I was able to regroup.

I'm mostly really proud of just how calm and collected I was. Just kept battling, trying to figure out a way to get back in the match. Then the momentum switched.

Really happy to be in a final.

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. On turning the match around, what adjustments did you make in order to get things back on your terms?

MADISON KEYS: The biggest thing I was really trying to focus on was just trying to get in patterns that I wanted to play. I felt like I was letting her dictate a little bit too much. Just really trying to push her back off the baseline a little bit more, move her a little bit more, which is tough because she's very good defensively. Just stay really patient.

I think at the beginning I was going for a little bit too much too soon just because she is so good about restarting the point over and over again. Just accepting I was going to have to hit two and three and four extra balls.

Then I think I also started serving a lot better.

Q. Did you feel like you started to get a better read on her second serve? Really kind of flipped the stats on that quickly in the second and third set.

MADISON KEYS: I definitely got a little bit more comfortable with it. I think also in nervous moments she would -- she kind of leans towards having a similar -- she kept kind of hitting the same spot. Definitely started reading that a little bit better. But I think you kind of have to when you have a first serve like she has.

Q. Putting together the run you've had this week, starting out the year this way, what does it mean for you to make a final right now?

MADISON KEYS: It means probably a lot more than anyone would even know. It's definitely not my biggest final I've ever been in, but it means a lot after the year that I had.

I am just really enjoying tennis again and trying to not act as if every match is the last match that I'll ever play in my life.

I'm just really, really happy to be out on the court, fighting as hard as I can, and for the most part being pretty cool and calm.

Q. Can I ask you what has triggered this perspective, this enjoyment, rediscovery?

MADISON KEYS: I don't know. Maybe it's just getting older. What do they say, the front of your brain finally develops when it's 25. Maybe it's fully developing (laughter).

But I have a phenomenal team. It's really just -- they've been really great about putting everything in perspective. I was getting really caught up in what my ranking meant and winning and losing.

All of a sudden it was like this number next to my name on a single website meant more about me than literally anything else in the world. I just got way too in all of that.

I think for me being in bubbles and all that was really hard because it just felt like it was tennis all of the time and you couldn't really escape it. It just felt like it was more and more and more piling on top of me.

I've kind of just decided to let it go. I told my boyfriend after I lost last week, I was like, C'est la vie, just vibes, we're vibing out here, it's fine, we're good.

Q. Facing Ali, awhile since you played, US Open match in 2016. You know each other's games super well. What is your biggest concern?

MADISON KEYS: I mean, the fact that we're not walking out at 1 a.m. is probably better than the last time we played.

I think the biggest thing with Ali is she's just such a great fighter. You know she's going to try every single point, she's going to bring it to you. Her backhand down the line is phenomenal. She's going to be ready to go.

We played each other in practice like three weeks ago. I'm sure we both know a lot about the other one.