Madison Keys secured her place in Charleston Open third spherical after defeating Donna Vekic on Thursday.
The former Australian Open champion proved too robust for the Croatian, successful 78 per cent of her first serve factors throughout a 6-2, 6-3 victory.
The American will face Hungarian participant Anna Bondar within the Charleston Open spherical of 16.
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Following the match, Keys spoke to former high 20 star Alison Riske-Amritraj on the Tennis Channel and mentioned her present focuses and her aptitude for clay-court tennis.
Madison Keys doesn’t assume she is a ‘clay-courter’
Unlike nearly all of clay-court occasions on the WTA Tour, the Charleston Open is performed on a inexperienced clay – moderately than the crimson floor tennis followers are accustomed to seeing on their tv screens.
Green clay courts within the US are produced from metabasalt in response to New York University, whereas crimson clay is produced from crushed crimson bricks.
Speaking about the Charleston floor on the Tennis Channel, Keys expressed her disagreement at being labelled a ‘clay-courter.’
“You know, I grew up playing on green clay,” Keys mentioned. “I grew up playing in Florida, so I got on it at a pretty early age and I learned how to slide.
“I feel like that’s always kind of the daunting thing, I think. For everyone when you haven’t been on a clay court and you’re not 100% confident with the movement, it feels like it kind of translates into everything.
“So I feel like being comfortable in the movement has always been a big thing for me. And then, funny enough, everyone tells me, they’re like, ‘You’re a clay courter.’
“I’m not, but okay.”
Keys, who has dropped to world quantity 18 in the beginning of this yr, went on to debate the high-quality margins of competing on the WTA Tour.
Speaking about her focuses transferring ahead, the American mentioned: “I think it’s really becoming a lot of the little things everyone is so good now.
“I feel like no one really has any sort of glaring weakness that you feel like—oh, in a tight point, I’ll just go there, and you know. 50-50 chance now.
“If I don’t hit it an inch away from the line, they’re going to hit a winner on me. So it’s really just kind of becoming a little bit better about just those little small things and honestly, just being brave.
“No one is playing to win; there’s no one really on their back foot hoping that you give it to them anymore. So you really just have to go out and take it. I think, no matter what the surface is, that’s still the case.”
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Madison Keys on what she discovered ‘difficult’ after successful a Grand Slam
Last yr, Madison Keys received her maiden Grand Slam title, defeating world primary Aryna Sabalenka within the last.
For many, Keys’ triumph felt a very long time coming. After all, she stays some of the gifted gamers of her era.
However, since successful the title, Keys has endured some problem – which she admitted whereas in dialog with Riske-Amritraj.
“You know, it’s been a little bit of a balancing act,” Keys mentioned.
“It obviously took a lot of work to get to that point to no longer feel like I needed it to kind of justify my career.
“And then I got it. And then… it’s a lot— the kind of immediate questions and what do you do next? What do you want next? And a lot of that pressure kind of came.
“And I think a lot of it came from myself and just kind of finding my new normal has been a little bit more difficult than I maybe anticipated it being.
“And I think I’m finally really kind of starting to find my stride again and feel very comfortable, you know, just readjusting and saying, ‘ok, if I only win one Grand Slam, that’s amazing, too.’”
