Madison Keys' toughest rival: herself

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Will I ever be able to reach a Grand Slam final again?

This thought echoed in Madison Keys's mind for years. Specifically, since she left Arthur Ashe in the summer of 2017 after winning only three games in that first final against her good friend Sloane Stephens. Nearly eight years later, the Rock Island tennis player got rid of that thorn at the Australian Open 2025, overcoming a tough draw and proving to herself that she always had the level, but lacked mental strength. In a chat this Tuesday on the CBS Mornings show, the new World No. 7 explained how she feels after fulfilling a lifelong dream.

"I feel like I haven't stopped moving to settle into this new place and fully accept it," acknowledges the American with that permanent smile since the final with Sabalenka. "These last 48 hours have been crazy, but I am tremendously happy to finally have one of these trophies with me. Looking at the draw I had, it was really tough, but I felt that with each passing round, I gained more and more confidence. I don’t know what kind of twist my mind took, but suddenly I felt I could beat anyone. Seriously, I always believed I could make it to Saturday and lift the trophy," she recalls emotionally.

For years, Madison carried the anxiety of never facing such a big opportunity again like the one she had in New York, a ghost that accompanied her in every tournament and prevented her from overcoming that last mental barrier necessary to enter the history books. "Honestly, I felt like that opportunity had somehow slipped through my fingers. I was very close a few years ago, but I had a heartbreaking match. It was precisely that moment when you arrive with many doubts and think: Will I ever be able to reach a Grand Slam final again? The truth is, I started to lower my head, but now I've put in a lot of work both on and off the court, so that's where we are now."

THERAPY AND RECONSTRUCTION

The road to glory has not been easy, but not in terms of defeating Collins, Rybakina, Svitolina, Swiatek, and Sabalenka consecutively. I'm talking about the reconstruction period Keys had to face to leave behind all those expectations and breathe the scent of competition from a different perspective. Would anything happen if she retired without winning a Grand Slam? She thought it would, but that mistake could only be erased with the help of professionals, going to therapy to let go of all that negative energy that often feeds within oneself.

"The longer it took to win a Grand Slam, the more I thought about how much of a failure I would be if I never achieved it," says Keys. "I wasn't even very aware of what I was feeling, but year after year, that internal pressure kept building up. Finally, I ended up going to therapy; I needed to let go of all those beliefs I held inside, until I reached a point where I was proud of my career and everything I had done, despite not winning a Grand Slam. That's when I regained the freedom to go out there and play at the level I knew I had. In the end, I thought: If it happens, it will be amazing; if it doesn't, it's okay, I will be proud anyway," concludes a woman who managed to overcome all her opponents, even herself.

This news is an automatic translation. You can read the original news, La rival más dura de Madison Keys: ella misma