Six years ago, up-and-coming American Madison Keys—then 22 years old—reached her first Grand Slam final at the US Open. Given her No. 14 seeding as well as the raw power she possesses, she came in as a slight favorite against her good friend and compatriot Sloane Stephens, who, having only recently returned from foot surgery, entered the tournament on a protected ranking.
The match didn’t pan out that way. Clearly nervous, she hit 29 unforced errors and captured just three games. It was all over in 61 minutes.
On Thursday, six years later, she had a chance to return to that final. And for a set-and-a-half of her semifinal match against Aryna Sabalenka, Keys played a brand of tennis you only see in video games. With the home favorite hitting every corner with her powerful shots, the world No. 1 in-waiting across the net could do very little except throw her racquet and receive a warning from the chair umpire.
Eventually Keys’ level dipped and she started playing the brand of tennis that mere mortals—not avatars—play. That kind of tennis was more than good enough to get her to her sixth Grand Slam semifinal. But it was not enough to keep Sabalenka out of the match. Keys served for the victory in the second set and even went up a break in the third. She had break points to go up 5-3. It wasn’t meant to be.
She stayed even with Sabalenka but ultimately lost in a third-set tiebreak, 0-6, 7-6(1), 7-6(5). Sometimes that happens when you’re playing the world’s very best. That doesn’t make it any less heartbreaking.
“Playing in a stadium full of people that are behind me is always amazing,” Keys said in a tearful press conference following the match. “I definitely tried to leave it all out there tonight and do my best, and that's all you can do.”
While it no doubt hurts now, earlier this week Keys spoke about managing the rigors of the sport and the pressure she no doubt felt in this hard-fought battle.
“[My] mental health is definitely a lot better when I'm playing with lower expectations, not putting as much pressure on myself and just kind of having a better approach to the game,” she said. “Really just trying to [make] it a lot more fun and focusing on that.”
That is the mentality Keys has championed throughout the fortnight, one that helped propel her to collect three straight wins over higher-ranked players—No. 14 seed Liudmila Samsonova, No. 3 seed Jessica Pegula and No. 9 seed (and 2023 Wimbledon champion) Marketa Vondrousova.
It’s also one she has adopted throughout her successful 2023 season. Besides her semifinal run at Flushing Meadows, she also reached the Wimbledon quarterfinals; it’s the first time that she’s made appearances in the last eight or better at two Slams in the same calendar year since 2018. In June, on the grass at Eastbourne, she captured her first title in a year-and-a-half. Six months earlier, she won all five of the matches she contested to help the American contingent claim the inaugural United Cup.
None of that feels like much comfort now. But having experienced tough losses like the 2017 final before, Keys realizes she can rebound eventually.
“Right now it sucks,” she said. “But I just think being able to take this and turn it to a positive is really possible. There is still a lot to be proud of and still tons of tennis to play this season.”
