At it happened: Keys wins women’s title after three-set classic, ‘lots of therapy’ pays off

Australian Open champion Madison Keys has revealed the disappointment of not winning a grand slam title led her to seek therapy.

Keys, who was promoted as a future champion from her early teens, admitted she spent years dealing with the emotional burden of not having lived up to those expectations saw her seek out “non-sports therapy”.

She wasn’t doing therapy for her tennis but for herself as she was feeling so bad about not having won a grand slam or have the career expected of her as a junior.

“I got to the point where I thought that I don’t care if this helps me [with tennis], I just want to feel better,” Keys said.

Keys said she had “lots of therapy” and that led to the form that drove her this summer where she won the Adelaide International leading into the Open and then beat both the world No.1 and No.2 to take her maiden grand slam title.

“I’m mostly just really proud of myself to get back to this position and be able to play the way that I played and finish on such a strong note,” Keys said.

“I’m just really proud of myself.

“I didn’t always believe that I could get back to this point. But to be able to do it and win, it means the world to me.”

She explained how she was at a tender age when it was first suggested to her that she could be a slam champion.

“It definitely started pretty young. Probably 11, 12, something like that. It obviously was meant to be confidence-building and all of that,” Keys said.

“I think as I got older and I had gotten close and it didn’t happen, and then it’s you’re getting older, you’re obviously in the later stages of your career, it kind of feels like, ‘will this ever actually happen? If it doesn’t happen, I didn’t live up to what everyone told me I should have done’.

“I think it kind of almost felt like it went from being something positive to something that was almost, like, a little bit of a panic of, ‘why hasn’t it happened yet? Why haven’t I been able to do it?’

“It really started to kind of weigh on me more where it was, ‘what if I never do it? If I don’t do it, am I considered a failure?’

“There was a lot of stuff that I had to, like, work through personally just with all of that just because of all of the pressure I was putting on myself with that.”

Thanks so much for joining us once more as we saw a classic women’s final ended with Madison Keys winning her maiden grand slam title.

We will be back tomorrow afternoon for our men’s final live blog.

Please join us then and check back in with our webpages for more Australian Open content tonight and tomorrow.

Bye for now.

Australian Open champion Madison Keys has revealed the disappointment of not winning a grand slam title led her to seek therapy.

Keys, who was promoted as a future champion from her early teens, admitted she spent years dealing with the emotional burden of not having lived up to those expectations saw her seek out “non-sports therapy”.

She wasn’t doing therapy for her tennis but for herself as she was feeling so bad about not having won a grand slam or have the career expected of her as a junior.

“I got to the point where I thought that I don’t care if this helps me [with tennis], I just want to feel better,” Keys said.

Keys said she had “lots of therapy” and that led to the form that drove her this summer where she won the Adelaide International leading into the Open and then beat both the world No.1 and No.2 to take her maiden grand slam title.

“I’m mostly just really proud of myself to get back to this position and be able to play the way that I played and finish on such a strong note,” Keys said.

“I’m just really proud of myself.

“I didn’t always believe that I could get back to this point. But to be able to do it and win, it means the world to me.”

She explained how she was at a tender age when it was first suggested to her that she could be a slam champion.

“It definitely started pretty young. Probably 11, 12, something like that. It obviously was meant to be confidence-building and all of that,” Keys said.

“I think as I got older and I had gotten close and it didn’t happen, and then it’s you’re getting older, you’re obviously in the later stages of your career, it kind of feels like, ‘will this ever actually happen? If it doesn’t happen, I didn’t live up to what everyone told me I should have done’.

“I think it kind of almost felt like it went from being something positive to something that was almost, like, a little bit of a panic of, ‘why hasn’t it happened yet? Why haven’t I been able to do it?’

“It really started to kind of weigh on me more where it was, ‘what if I never do it? If I don’t do it, am I considered a failure?’

“There was a lot of stuff that I had to, like, work through personally just with all of that just because of all of the pressure I was putting on myself with that.”