Madison Keys embraces change to earn second grand slam final chance
Madison Keys embraces change to earn second grand slam final chance
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The American has made her peace with the stress that once stymied her and is ready for Aryna Sabalenka in Melbourne. Only a few hours after her first grand slam final had come to an end in 2017, while she was still trying to process falling short of achieving her ultimate dream, Madison Keys was asked to consider what she could have done differently during her time on court. She responded, smiling, without hesitation: “Win some more games.”.
![[Tumaini Carayol]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/uploads/2022/03/01/Tumaini_Carayol_v2.png?width=75&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
Her comments were a fair reflection of a brutal 6-3, 6-0 loss to Sloane Stephens in the US Open final. Keys has had to accept that she badly failed to handle the pressure of the occasion. “I’ve obviously thought of that match endlessly for the past eight years,” said Keys, smiling.
![[Madison Keys in action at the 2017 US Open final]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/3acf4e334b58d8ed80a731c274eeda94770bef38/0_62_4128_2824/master/4128.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
“I think, during that match, I was so consumed with being nervous and the moment and the opportunity and all of that, that I never really gave myself a chance to actually play.”. Even as she processed such a painful defeat, Keys had good reason to believe that more opportunities would quickly follow. She was still only 22 years old and reaching the final was still a significant step forward. Instead, while she has enjoyed a career that most players could only dream of, for so long she was unable to scale those heights again. In the intervening years she has gained a reputation for an inability to manage the stress of the biggest moments.
As Keys, 30 next month, burst through those mental barriers with a spectacular win over Iga Swiatek on Thursday, she is finally back in a grand slam final little more than seven years after her first. No other player to make two or more grand-slam final appearances has ever had such a large gap between their first and second.
