Madison Keys on Winning a Grand Slam, Therapy & Finally Letting Go
5/19/202658 min
Madison Keys joins us for one of the most honest conversations we’ve had on Tennis Insider Club.
After years of being told she would win a Grand Slam, Madison opens up about the pressure that followed her from a very young age, the weight of expectations, and the painful thought that no matter how much she had achieved, her career might still feel incomplete without a Slam.
She reflects on the 2017 US Open final, the emotional exhaustion of Grand Slam runs, playing Sloane Stephens in New York, and how badly it hurt to feel so close to a dream and watch it disappear so quickly.
Madison also shares the inner work that changed everything: therapy, separating her self-worth from results, learning to stop living only for tennis, and finally reaching the point where she could say, “I’m just going to play tennis how I want to play it.”
Then she won the Australian Open.
This episode is about pressure, perfectionism, identity, friendship, balance, and the difficult but powerful process of becoming kinder to yourself.
Chapters:
00:00 Madison Keys on feeling like a failure without a Slam
00:39 How Venus Williams inspired Madison to start tennis
03:42 Sponsor break: IM8
04:55 Turning pro at 14
07:42 Being called “the next Serena Williams”
09:18 The pressure of not winning a Grand Slam
12:15 The pain of the 2017 US Open final
18:00 Therapy, letting go, and finally winning Australia
21:35 Why winning brought old habits back
25:28 Separating Madison the person from Madison the player
29:15 What’s the point of winning if you’re miserable?
31:35 Did winning the Australian Open feel like relief?
34:00 Radical honesty and avoiding easy tennis excuses
36:35 Perfectionism: gift or curse?
41:48 Having her husband as her coach
46:15 What motivates Madison now?
50:25 Madison’s foundation and giving kids access to tennis
54:35 Madison’s advice to her younger self
This episode is sponsored by IM8.
Get 10% off your first order. Code TIC auto-applies at checkout:
https://im8health.com/discount/TIC
A special thank you to InterContinental Rome for hosting us.
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Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsMadison Keys· Guest0:00
I just felt like no matter what I've done, if I retired today, I would kind of feel like a failure. And I was like, "Yeah, but I never won a slam." I just was finally to the point where I said, "I don't care anymore. Like, I'm just gonna play tennis how I wanna play it, and whatever happens, happens." And then I won the Australian Open [laughs] and it was so amazing.
Caroline Garcia· Host0:22
Hello, insiders. It's Carole Garcia. Before we start, one quick thing. If you enjoy this conversation, hit the subscribe button. It's the best way to help us grow and keep bringing you the players and coaches you love. Thank you so much. Madison, thank you so much for being with us today. How did you start with tennis?
Madison Keys· Guest0:41
So I started playing tennis in a very unconventional way for most people. I, I grew up in a very small town. There's not a lot of tennis going on, and it happened to have Wimbledon, my parents had Wimbledon on the TV, and I walked through their bedroom and Venus was playing, and I said, "I really like that dress. I want one." My mom's like, "Well, you have to play the sport that they're playing if you want the tennis dress." And I said, "Okay, sign me up." [laughs] And it was a couple weeks later and I just remember asking my mom, like, "You know the, the thing with the sticks and they hit the ball and everything, like, when are we gonna do that?" And so she bought me a racket, and I would just hit against our garage door, and she would,