Madison Keys has praised the United Cup team environment after reaching the third round at the Australian Open.
The American continued her good start to the season after defeating Xinyu Wang 6-3 6-2 to reach the last 32.
Keys produced 26 winners and made 23 unforced errors on her way to a dominant performance.
After the match Keys spoke about one of the things that she wants to improve this season is playing well even when she’s not producing her best tennis, “I think one of the biggest things that I’m really trying to work on is even when I’m not playing my best tennis, being able to have my worst level not be as bad and just kind of try to bring that in a little bit,” Keys explained during her press conference.
“I mean, that’s been a big goal of mine, and that’s something that I’m working on. I think I’ve done a pretty good job at, even in matches where I start not playing amazing, figuring my way out, getting more comfortable and just giving myself the opportunity to get into matches. I think that’s what I’ve been the most proud of so far this season.
“I obviously feel like I’ve played some really good tennis, and have so far, and obviously have played a lot of matches. That’s really all that you can really ask for at the start of a season.”
Keys has started the season in fine form having won all seven of her matches so far, with five of those coming in the United Cup.
The world number 13 helped USA win the United Cup alongside Taylor Fritz, Frances Tiafoe and Jessica Pegula.
Speaking about the event Keys told the press conference that it was the best two weeks of her life and continuing that environment outside of the competition has been important, “Honestly, I think I speak for everyone, it was truly the best two weeks of my whole life. It was so much fun,” Keys said.
“And obviously winning is the cherry on top and all of that. I mean, to have the seven other amazing people and then all of our teams together, it was just a really great group of people. I think it was the perfect way to start the year.
“I mean, we had so much fun. I’m really happy that we’ve continued to — we still talk literally every single day. We still have meals together and all of that. So I think just carrying that over outside of the event has been really great for all of us.”
Keys will look to continue her great start to the season when she takes on Victoria Azarenka in a blockbuster third round match.
The American has a lot of work to do as Azarenka leads the head-to-head 3-0 heading into Friday’s match.
