INDIAN WELLS, CA, USA – Madison Keys’ comeback from wrist injury may not have ended on the note that she wanted, but the 22-year-old considered her Round of 16 run at the BNP Paribas Open a success.
Keys underwent left wrist surgery during the off-season, which ruled her out of the first two months of the year. Playing in her first tournament, she scored two solid wins over Mariana Duque-Mariño and Naomi Osaka, before losing to a steady Caroline Wozniacki 6-4, 6-4 on Tuesday night.
“Funny enough, this is the furthest I got in Indian Wells, so go me!” Keys said after the match. “Obviously it sucks, but I’m happy I could play three matches. Caroline played well tonight. I thought it was pretty tight for someone who has played 20 matches this year and I’ve played three.”
Earlier in the week, Keys said her expectations for her first tournament back were fairly low.
“I was, like, if I get a set, I’ll be happy. It’s always tough to come back and everyone is in the middle of their season. I definitely had really low expectations, which is probably why, when I was up there and serving for the match in the first round, I was, like, ‘Oh, this is exciting. I didn’t think this was going to happen.'”
Keys sustained the left wrist injury at the 2015 US Open but played the entire 2016 season while managing the pain. It ended up being her best season to date, as she broke into the Top 10, made the biggest final of her career at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia and qualified for her first BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global.
“I don’t think I really compromised my game,” Keys said, referring to playing last season with the injury. “If anything, it made me play my game better, looking more for forehands, doing what I could, maybe not going for the winner down the line from 16 feet behind the baseline, playing a lot smarter.
“More than anything, I think it made me a lot more mentally tougher knowing it’s going to hurt, it’s going to be tough, but just wanting to make Singapore that badly, I was just going to do everything that I could to get there.
“I think it was after Wimbledon I found out it’s not going to go away and that I was going to need surgery to fix it. So the original plan was, ‘Okay, after US Open, [have the surgery], be ready for Australian Open.’
“And then after US Open, I was 9th in the Race to Singapore. There was no way you’re going to get me off of a tennis court right now. Then it was, okay, we’re going to do everything we can to get to Singapore. And then, if you don’t make Singapore, we’ll call it there. If you do, which I did, I got home on the 30th or the 31st of October and I had surgery November 2nd.”
Keys’ wrist was immobilized in a cast after surgery, but once that cast was removed her panic began to set in.
“For the longest time, I still couldn’t turn my steering wheel and I couldn’t use my left hand doing this and that,” she said. “It was tough, and it was really stressful.
“There were so many times when I’d be fine for, like, a week or a month and then all of a sudden I’d be, ‘Oh, my God, guys. What if I never win a match again? What if it’s over?’
“And that’s when my team was really great about, Take a breath. It is fine. You won matches [in 2016] when every time you hit the ball you were in horrible amounts of pain. You can do this.”
Part of that team includes Lindsay Davenport, who rejoined Keys’ team during the off-season. The two worked together during the 2015 season and under Davenport’s tutelage Keys made her first major semifinal at the Australian Open. Family commitments led to a split but so far the reunion has been exactly what Keys needed.
“I think we both came to the table knowing what I could give, what she could give, all of that,” Keys said. “I have been lucky that I have also had the help of USTA in Orlando. So the weeks that she can’t do, I have a really good base to go home to and practice there. So that’s been really good. I think we both know what to expect.”
Going under the knife is never ideal for any athlete, but in Keys’ case there may have been a silver lining. In addition to spending time with her family – “It was nice to live a normal life for a bit” – the delayed start to her season also gave her a block of uninterrupted time to work on her fitness and improve her game.
“I worked on my slice a ton, obviously, because I had months where I couldn’t do anything else,” Keys said. “There were a lot of things I got to work on, which was great. And also, I got to work with Scott [Byrnes, her trainer] for the longest period of time without a tournament coming up. We worked on a lot of just little things we haven’t been able to.
“So I feel like I’m in the best shape that I have probably ever been in. Just feeling more comfortable coming to the net, using a slice, all of that. In a lot of ways it was really good to kind of just have the time to work on my game.”
Keys said the wrist is fully healed but she went into the tournament wondering how it would hold up through multiple matches. Under the duress of three matches, those questions were answered positively.
“I’m definitely excited to get back on the grind,” Keys said. “In a weird way I miss losing, because it means I was actually here.
“We do get to do what we love. I think that’s really special, and I think sometimes we get really caught up in the winning and the losing and rankings and all of that. At the end of the day, we get to play a sport that we love for our jobs, and just this whole time has made me realize how truly blessed I am to be able to do that.”
Keys’ next event is next week’s Miami Open.
