Interview: Madison Keys – QF (lost to [3] Daria Kasatkina 6-7(5) 6-4 6-2)

Friday, April 7, 2023

Quarterfinal – [3] Daria Kasatkina def. [9] Madison Keys (USA) 6-7(5) 6-4 6-2 

THE MODERATOR: Let’s get started. Madison, really hard-fought battle. Can you give us your thoughts on the match?

MADISON KEYS: Yeah, I think I obviously played a pretty good start at the first set. Kind of let her back in, happy to get through the tiebreaker.

Then close second set. Didn’t serve amazing at the end of the second set. Then the third set just kind of got away from me pretty quickly, and I think she played pretty well.

A lot of good things from this week and even today, but lots of areas of improvement going into clay season.

Question: Maddy, if you’re able to share what you were feeling on court. Is it an injury, and is it something that you were aware of coming into the match?

MADISON KEYS: Just some shoulder pain issues. I mean, wasn’t aware of it going into the match, so it makes things a little bit difficult.

She played very well today. So I think that is a very big factor.

Question: Can you talk a little bit about the second set? Because it looked like you were in control there for a little while. Did she just raise her game? Is that what you think happened or what?

MADISON KEYS: I think obviously I broke two at 4-3 in the second and didn’t play a good game and got broken back. It happens sometimes. But I think it was a combination of playing a few loose points but her also raising her level. I think we both kind of knew that that 4-3 game was a really important one.

Question: Maddy, she was changing her serve a lot. Did that affect you?MADISON KEYS: No. I was expecting it. That’s kind of just how she plays.

MADISON KEYS: Yeah, I think that’s just kind of how she plays, and she just is constantly trying to change things up and throw people off.

Question: It seemed extreme to me.

Question: You mentioned a lot of good things from this week. What are some of those that you hope to kind of continue on as you move forward in clay season?

MADISON KEYS: I think I had a pretty good game plan in how I wanted to play this week. I think I was like looking for forehands really well, trying to move forward. I think I moved really well.

Just this year has been a little bit up and down for me. So being able to have three good matches in a row — and even today, to kind of just put all of those together and have a lot of positives and not a lot of lows was probably the biggest thing from this week.