Madison Keys said she stopped listening to comments about her potential a couple of years ago when she won a number of matches.
In 2013, she cracked the Top 40 at 18 years old. The American was the youngest player in the Top 40 at that time. "Since I came on the tour so young and I won my first match, I've had a lot of comments like 'You'll be a top player one day,'" she told *Rolling Stone*. "I got to the point where, as nice as it was to hear that, I almost stopped listening to it. I was almost putting added pressure on myself. And I just started focusing more on playing well, and doing well, just for myself."
The 20-year-old is now ranked No. 18, having reached the semifinals of the Australian Open, upsetting Petra Kvitova and Venus Williams along the way before losing to Serena Williams.
She said she recently made changes to her serve and forehand.
"[My forehand] would barely get over the net," she said. "It had lots of spin, and it was not pretty. I had a very big backswing. I had to change my grip, had to change my backswing."