INDIAN WELLS, Calif. — When Madison Keys was 10, her entire family relocated to Florida from their small town in Illinois so she could train at Chris Evert’s tennis academy. The expectations were high, and she dreamed of winning a Grand Slam title.
It didn’t take long for Keys to reach the sport’s biggest stages. She made her major main draw debut as a 16-year-old at the US Open and even won her first-round match.
But, despite the hype and her own ambition, it would take 46 main draw Slam appearances — filled with deep runs and early exits, and even a final appearance at the US Open in 2017 — for Keys to achieve what had been her singular focus for as long as she could remember. In January, following an incredible fortnight in which she defeated two-time defending champion and world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka in the final, Keys became the Australian Open champion.
An elated Keys traveled home — on three different flights — with the trophy right by her side, as if not wanting to chance losing what she had worked so hard for. After a whirlwind of media appearances in New York, Keys went home with her husband and coach Bjorn Fratangelo and was immediately haunted by a question: Now what?
She spent the next three days on her couch.
“It was really emotionally draining,” Keys, 30, told ESPN this week ahead of the BNP Paribas Open. “I mean, you were just experiencing the highest of highs and then you come home and it just kind of ends. I was basically comatose just trying to recover. It was an amazing achievement, I was so happy, but the emotional roller coaster afterwards was a little bit surprising.”
Keys, now ranked a career-high of No. 5, is not the first to experience this post-Slam letdown. In fact, she said she had been warned.
“It’s actually funny how many former players I had reach out and be like, ‘The existential crisis is totally normal,'” Keys said.
Several players told her that her first practice back would be a tough one — and it was, in her words, “tragic.” But more importantly, they told her she would probably have to rethink everything she had known. Now that she achieved the one thing that had fueled her, what would her new goals be? What would keep her motivated?
Dominic Thiem, the former world No. 3 who won his only major title at the US Open in 2020, talked about the toll that achieving the feat took on him.
“After [the US Open] I was in a state of euphoria,” Thiem said in a 2021 interview to Austrian newspaper Der Standard. “The results were still good, I reached the final at the ATP Finals in London. But during the preparation for this season I fell into a hole … I spent 15 years chasing the big goal without looking to the left or the right. As I said, [and then] I achieved it.”
Three-time major champion Ashleigh Barty echoed Thiem’s sentiments recently while promoting her book, “My Dream Time.”
“Winning Wimbledon was the single thing I wanted my whole career,” Barty said in a recent interview with News Corp. “But after that feat, in June 2021, the fire died inside.”
She added in her book about her feelings at the time: “I don’t know what I’m playing for anymore. I think I’m done. I have got nothing left, no spark.”
Barty was never able to find it again and, despite winning the Australian Open in 2022, she retired not long after as the world No. 1 and at 25 years old.
Determined to not go down a similar path, Keys was proactive. She had started working with a psychologist about a year ago and has been seeing her every week since returning from Australia. Keys shared with her all of the emotions she was feeling since her triumph, and confided that it felt quite different than she had expected. Keys, who got married in November, compared it to a heightened version of the day after her wedding. “It’s like there’s all this planning, all this buildup and then you wake up the next morning and you go, ‘Wait, it’s over?'”
Talking through it all has been very helpful, she said, and she’s proud of herself for being vulnerable and “brutally honest.” It’s allowed her to find perspective during what she always thought would be the best time of her life.
And instead of rushing back to competition, Keys allowed herself some rare time off. While most of her peers were competing in the Middle East at 1000-level events in Doha and Dubai, Keys was at her Orlando-area home and training at the USTA’s National Campus. Being around the younger generation of up-and-coming American talent at practice during that time let her soak in the victory — something that’s difficult to do in a sport like tennis in which there’s a tournament every week. And it provided her an unexpected ego boost.
“They were always visor girlies before and they were like, ‘I wear a hat because of you now,'” Keys said. “I’m like, “Gen Z likes me!'”
Being liked by her fellow players has always been something Keys has prided herself on — while some players actively avoid pursuing friendships to maintain a competitive edge, Keys relishes being the friendly face or a listening ear in the locker room.
The reception to her Australian Open victory made her peers’ respect abundantly clear. It seemed as if everyone on tour — from current stars like Coco Gauff, Jessica Pegula and Sloane Stephens to legends like Serena Williams — and even many of her male counterparts flooded her social media accounts with congratulations.
so deserved 🥲 Go Madiii!!!
— Coco Gauff (@CocoGauff) January 25, 2025
We love to see it!!!! Much deserved in every way possible 🫶🏼♥️ https://t.co/0QOKFoJA79
— Jessie Pegula (@JPegula) January 25, 2025
“I was genuinely just so happy for her,” Taylor Fritz, current world No. 4 and the top-ranked American man, told ESPN. Fritz has known Keys since their teenage years. “It’s been awhile since I was genuinely that happy for somebody accomplishing something … She made the [US Open] final all those years ago and it’s amazing to see that happen for her now. I mean, she just really deserves it.”
For Keys, that type of reaction means everything.
“I’ve always wanted being a good person to be the lead about me,” Keys said. “I always rebelled against the thought that nice people couldn’t be successful. I always hated that storyline. And I felt like, if winning a Grand Slam meant that I had to change who I was as a person and somehow become meaner or not as nice, then it wasn’t really worth it to me, because I don’t want to change who I am just to have some sort of achievement that, let’s be real, in five years, no one’s going to care.
“And so it felt really kind of validating to have the amount of support that I got just because to me, it kind of showed like, ‘OK, I think maybe I’m an OK person.’ That’s really important to me and almost more special than actually winning.”
Keys returns to action this week at the BNP Paribas Open some six weeks after her career-defining moment. As the No. 5 seed, she received a first-round bye and will face Anastasia Potapova on Saturday. There will be more eyes on her than ever before.
She knows the expectations are high but she also knows what she’s capable of and isn’t putting too much pressure on herself. Keys hasn’t quite figured out her new goals and she wants to give herself the time to do so. Prior to the Australian Open, she had made peace with the realization she might never win a major — something her psychologist had helped her with — and while things have obviously changed, she’s bringing that same mentality to her latest chapter.
“It’s one of those things where it’s like, ‘OK, I did it once, maybe I can do it again,’ and obviously the goal is to win another [Slam],” Keys said. “But also, the reality is there are a lot of really great players and it’s really hard to win one so maybe it doesn’t ever happen again. And that’s also OK …
“So for the time being, I think my goal is to really be honest in managing my expectations and continuing to focus and do the things that I did really well, and just really enjoy the process because honestly, the month of January in Australia was probably some of the most fun that I’ve ever had on tennis court.”
