‘It helped me be free’: Madison Keys on therapy, Donald Trump and her husband as coach | Wimbledon

BBefore, she won her first Grand Chelem tournament at Australian Open in January, Madison Keys had spent more than a year talking to a therapist in her life rather than her tennis career. “When I had gone to see sports psychologists in the past, it had been a small tunnel on routines and great moments on the field,” she said on a Sunday afternoon in London. “So, being able to speak to someone of broader life philosophies, helped me understand why I felt in this way instead of being simply focused on decisive moments in a match.”

The 30 -year -old American, ready for another inclination at Wimbledon, recalls some of the capricious suggestions that specialized sports psychiatrists would advise him to follow in crucial stages of a match.

“It would be, like:” Make sure you look at your strings and do this specific thing and it will simply help the nerves to disappear. “”

Keys stops when I ask if it was difficult to open up to a stranger about his deeper and generally more hidden emotions during a therapy session. “I don’t know if I would say it was difficult,” she replies. “It’s more that I was actually trying to be honest with myself about what I felt. There was a lot of cases where I would say something and I was surprised that it was actually what I felt. This is the kind of thing that live in the back of your head you never really pay attention. ”

She always speaks to the same therapist and says: “One of the greatest things I learned about myself is that, because of our sport, and our constant effort to be better, there is always something else [to do]. Sometimes you don’t really take a while to recognize what you feel or think about what’s going on inside. You just lowered your head and continue to enter the next thing. At a given moment that catches up with you and it was therefore really important for me to learn to sit and be introspective and to understand what I felt and why. And then be good with that and do not try to repair it immediately and make it disappear. »»

The best tennis players are so consumed by their career and life on tour, that it often seems that their true me, as people, be forgotten. Did Keys become better to separate his personal identity from his tennis game character? “I was able to do it more, but there are times when you have the impression that you have understood and that things are great for you to find that it is not so simple.

“The most difficult part to focus on your mental health is that you have never done it [completely]. It is never checked in a box, so it is something that I should continue to be aware, because it is easy to fall into bad habits. »»

Keys faced a difficult draw in Melbourne and had to win five games in three sets, beating four opponents in the Top 10, including Iga Swiatek, World No 2 at the time, in the epic semi-final, then the world n ° 1, Aryna Sabalenka. She survived a match point against Swiatek and was pushed by Sabalenka before winning 7-5 in the third set. “I was very proud of the way I took each turn just like this turn,” says Keys. “I was so focused and I never got ahead of myself. Playing all these hard matches against the best players really allowed me to concentrate and continue to persevere. The fact that I played so many three seters and that I was able to hold the trophy at the end of the two weeks was incredible. ”

Eight years had passed since her last slam final when, at the US Open 2017, she was crushed 6-3, 6-0 by her friend Sloane Stephens. The pressure on the occasion was too much against Stephens and, in Melbourne, Keys said: “I obviously thought of this match constantly in the past eight years.” So, did her recent therapy helped in these clutch moments of his first Slam victory? “It helped me be much more free and have a clear mind in the moment,” confirms Keys. “I was able to force myself to be a little more courageous in these moments instead of being prudent and tempting, and going there. It happened to the point where most of the time you prefer to be courageous. Maybe things do not go exactly as you want, but you have done them under your terms and that you do not feel.

This regret had also been acutely felt in the US 2023 Open semi-final. Keys led Sabalenka 6-0, 5-3 but, rather than maintaining her positivity, she became passive and hesitant and lost the match on successive shooting. “I do not know if it was the exact moment, but obviously, it was a difficult loss,” says Keys about what prompted him to seek therapy. “Being in this position and not being able to cross a line was definitely a kind of final reminder:” Oh yes, maybe there is something on which we can work. “”

Keys has also moved from the use of a Wilson racket to the largest Yonex and she has refined her service, but she admits that, in addition to working on her mind, the most positive change in the past two years has been the appointment of her husband, Bjorn Fratangelo, as a coach.

“I was struggling when I asked him to help me,” recalls Keys for the move in June 2023. “At the time, it was supposed to be in the short term, but we immediately succeeded. I think that the biggest obstacle for him was comfortable telling me what to do. It took time to get used to it, but now we find our stride.”

Fratangelo was a player who briefly made the top 100 of the world in 2016, but what are his best attributes as a coach? “It is really great to analyze what’s going on [in a match] And he does it so quickly. Associated with the fact that we obviously know very well and that we know how to communicate, he is able to see certain things that I do not see on the field. He then communicates in a way that I can really do it. »»

Keys says that as a couple, far from the court, “we do a very good job to balance things.

At the French Open this month, the Keys sought semi-finals when she won the first set against Coco Gauff. But she collapsed in the third set of a match cut by errors and her American colleague beat Sabalenka in another dramatic final in Paris.

“I was able to watch the last set,” says Keys, “and it’s so incredible for Coco. I thought I could have won our match, but almost beat someone doesn’t really matter. ”

Keys laughs then says of Gauff: “She plays great tennis and her clay season was phenomenal. It is obviously disappointing to be so close and to lose the possible champion. But at the same time, that gives you a lot of confidence.”

Wimbledon is the next one and it is a tournament where it has reached two quarter -finals. In 2015, she beat Petra Kvitova and Venus Williams before losing against Serena Williams while, eight years later, she lost against Sabalenka in the neighborhoods. Last year was even more painful when, in the fourth round, she had 5-2 in the third set and two points of the victory against Jasmine Paolini.

“I then torn my hamstrings,” says Keys with a grimace. She retired at 5-5 and Paolini then made the final. “I hope it is the year I spend beyond the neighborhoods because Wimbledon has always been something I dreamed of. It is this aura which means that, I think, for all tennis players, it is THE tournament.”

It is hard to believe that Keys, a teenage prodigy, has been playing professionally since she was 14 years old. “I have felt each of the past 16 years,” she said with a groaning laugh.

Staying in Chelsea for a change, Keys reveals: “I would like to be able to say that I will make visits, but I would lie if I have the impression that it could happen. But it was pleasant to see another part of London. I am known to be stuck in Wimbledon every year that I was here, so it’s fun to be in another part of the city.”

What would she like the most in London? “When I’m in a big city, I always really liked to make this tourist bus where you can see everything in one trip. If I have an afternoon, it would be the only thing I would love to do – jump on a bus and see every site at least once. ”

Kindness Wins is the non -profit foundation that she created in 2020 and her very name offers an overview of her character and her philosophy of life. “It means a lot for me,” she says, “because tennis has brought so much in my life and I opened so many doors. I thought it was important to give children this opportunity because tennis teaches so many important life lessons. This helps children learn these in a way they can be competitive but also a good sport.

“So I wanted to make sure I was doing everything I could to make tennis more accessible for as many people who wanted to play it. Tennis also gives so many opportunities to go to university and meet new people – but it’s a really expensive sport. So we try to help. “

The world seems to be less kind at the moment, so how does it feel as an American living under Donald Trump? “It’s really a difficult period and it is difficult to balance where you want to be informed and know what’s going on but, at the same time, it’s crazy.

“Sometimes it is difficult to stop it enough so that you do not pull your hair, but that you also do not have unconscious of what is happening and the realities of everything. It is really difficult for the moment.”

Keys smiles with regret when I say that only three and a half years of Trump presidency to survive. “I know. After a few months, I said to myself:” Oh, it’s only a few weeks! “”

At least Trump’s first month at the Oval Office also marked his victory at Australian Open. Keys smiles more widely when I ask if the reality of winning her first Grand Slam has lived up to the dream she has pursued for so long.

“It was great,” she said with another peak laugh. “Being able to do it with this group of people around me was really special. So, yes, it was just great. ”