Madison Keys has arrived in Brisbane, ready to defend a whole lot of points, courtesy of her success in Australia this time last year. Keys of course, famously won her first Major, taking home the Australian Open title. But she also won the title in Adelaide prior to her run in Melbourne.
This year, she starts her campaign in Brisbane, along with 7 top ten players. Keys doesn’t seem overly concerned about the quality of the field though.
”I feel like this week has always been
one of those weeks where the field is pretty difficult and tough. There is not a ton of places for all of us to go and play. We’ll inevitably all end up in the same place. It happens a few times a year. I think it always kind of brings out the best in all of us.”
It might be expected, that with such a great campaign last year, Keys would want to replicate her schedule, but that doesn’t even register in her thoughts.
“I think that I have learned that you can’t ever really replicate what you used to do. I think
that’s a really hard thing to do.”
Brisbane holds plenty of good memories for her anyway, so she’s no stranger to the city.
“I have made a final here and we played Billie Jean King Cup years and years ago here when it was on the red clay, so that was a fun experience to be here.
I have lots of really great memories here. It’s always been a really great place to start the season.
Coming to Australia as a defending Grand Slam different is certainly different this time around for Keys. But her attitude has always been fairly low key, and it seems this year is no different.
“I’m really excited. I think that there is
obviously a lot of pressure that comes with doing as well as I did last year, but not very many people get to go into this swing being a defending champion. So I’m trying really just to appreciate that and enjoy the position that I
have put myself in.”
While there might be external expectations on Keys, being the defending champion, she’s taking a more pragmatic approach to her Australian campaign.
“I think that obviously after you
win a slam, expectations go up, so I think I have played the past year with higher expectations, but there are so many great players, and everyone is playing very, very
good tennis right now. So you also know that it’s not solely up to you.
I think I’m really just trying to go out and start the year offas best as I can and play some really good tennis. Excited to see how all of the chips fall.
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