How an equipment change helped Madison Keys unlock her game

Editor’s note: This interview was published following Madison Keys’ first-round win over Katerina Siniakova. She continued her strong US Open form in the second round, slamming 19 winners to defeat 18-year-old Australian qualifier Maya Joint 6-4, 6-0 in 62 minutes.

NEW YORK — Madison Keys’ game has always revolved around the chase for control. Since her debut as a teenager on the Hologic WTA Tour, Keys’ success has hinged on her ability to harness her preternatural power and not be undone by it.

One element that has helped Keys maintain more consistency this season has been a fairly significant equipment change. At the suggestion of her coach and fiance, Bjorn Fratangelo, Keys switched away from using gut strings, known for their flexibility and power, to all polyester strings, which are firmer but can provide better control.

Keys had tried the change in the past but the switch to polyester strings in her 18 x 20 setup immediately led to wrist problems.

“Bjorn said what if we went a step further and change the string pattern,” Keys said on the WTA Insider Podcast. “I was like, ‘Didn’t know that was a thing.'”

Keys moved to a more open 16 x 19 string pattern and kept tinkering.

“I didn’t really switch racquets, but I switched string patterns and we messed with the balance a little bit, which ended up changing the swing weight, and then switching into an all-poly.”

“All of a sudden I’m hitting these balls and they’re dropping instead of with gut when they were sailing.”

The Madrid Open would prove to be vital testing ground for the Keys-Fratangelo experiment. The tournament was a notoriously favorable one for big hitters, regardless of the surface, thanks to its altitude. But Keys had never played well there. Going into this year’s edition, she was riding a six-match losing streak at the Caja Magica and won back-to-back matches just once.

“Everyone had always told me you should love it, the altitude and all that,” Keys said. “Yeah, it feels good for three balls and then I put a hole through the fence.”

This year, with her new racquet setup, she powered her way to the quarterfinals. The run included wins over Coco Gauff and Ons Jabeur.

“I’ve always really struggled when I have to try to come down and pull back,” Keys said. “I can never create the control by slowing down. It just doesn’t work. The ball ends up going everywhere.

“So now all of a sudden being able to actually swing, it’s actually going in. I can continue to keep going after things and then make subtle adjustments because instead of missing by 12 inches, I’m missing by two. That’s an easier adjustment. So that was the thing that clicked.”

That control continued in Rome with a second straight semifinal two weeks later. Then, at Wimbledon, she looked on her way to making her first quarterfinal at the All England Club when she injured her adductor and was forced to retire to Jasmine Paolini. Given her form and confidence, the heartbreaking result felt like one that would linger on for Keys.

But after her first-round win at the US Open, Keys confessed to only seeing the positives.

US Open: Scores | Draw | Order of play

“I think I surprise people because I still say that match against Jasmine was, in my opinion, it was one of the greatest matches that I’ve ever played,” Keys said. “And it was really fun up until the very end.

“I mean, that atmosphere on Court 1 playing Jasmine was incredible. It was so much fun. Then we were both playing so well, and we were pushing each other. I felt like it was a match where we both kind of had to keep shifting what we were doing because the other one was catching up and changing what they were doing.”

A decade ago, a result like that would have left Keys in tears as she spoke to the press. Asked what had changed, Keys paused and smiled.

“That’s therapy,” she said.

“I think it’s really hard, especially for tennis players, because every result matters. I mean, we’re lying if we say that we don’t care. But I think it’s really hard when you grow up and the number next to your name means so much.

“It becomes really hard to separate yourself from that number and the winning and the losing. When you win, your phone is blowing up. People want to talk to you after the matches and everything. You have to go into press.

“And then you lose, and it’s not the same.”

But it wasn’t just a flip of the switch for Keys. She has worked with sports psychologists and mental coaches for years, but admits now that she never fully bought into the process. She knew all the right things to say, but she knew deep down that she hadn’t internalized it.

“It just got to a point where I wanted to be just an overall happier person,” Keys said. “So I started trying to look at it from that point of view, and if I could do that and really buy into it and be really honest and vulnerable, which is not my favorite thing to do with people, that a lot of good could come from it.”

Keys joked that with all her injury travails this season, “I feel like this year has been like seven years condensed into one.” The difference is now, she can laugh about it. Setbacks are not a failure, but a challenge, one that can be overcome.

It’s an outlook that has allowed her to settle in and stay cool and controlled, both on and off the court.

“I think it’s hard when you grow up that way to not take every loss as this is the end of the world,” she said. “So it’s been a lot of personal growth on my part.

“But I’ve been really working on just trying to take the experiences for what they are and not the earth-shattering disappointment that sometimes I think we kind of all can live in a little bit.”