Madison Keys roasts Bobby Flay's tennis skills as guest judge on "Beat Bobby Flay"

And this week, the Australian Open champion was a guest judge on celebrity chef Bobby Flay's Food Network competition show Beat Bobby Flay.

Keys and her fellow guest judge Michael Symon, a James Beard award winner, judged father-son duo Preston Nguyen and Peter Nguyen's dishes and Flay's head-to-head in the high-octane kitchen to determine a winner.

Keys confirmed earlier this month on "The Player's Box" podcast she hosts with fellow pros Jessica Pegula, Desirae Krawczyk and Jennifer Brady that she would be making an appearance on the show, and joked that she "[felt] a little out of place" as a professional athlete (and hobbyist in the kitchen) judging world-class chefs.

"So I'm sitting there and I was like, 'I feel like it's lacking acid?'," she said. "And he was like, 'Yes, for sure!' I was like, 'Cool, great, I'm gonna write it down in my little notebook!'"

Read more: What tennis star Alizé Cornet learned from “Traitors” TV stint

But the seeds for Keys' appearance were planted even earlier. On the heels of a painful 0-6, 7-6(1), 7-6(5) loss to Aryna Sabalenka in the semifinals of the 2023 US Open, Keys was scrolling through her Instagram direct messages—for better or for worse.

"Typically when you lose 7-6 in the third and you're going through your DMs, it's not the nicest place to be," she said, but one message caught her eye. It was from Flay himself.

An avid tennis fan, he was impressed by Keys' fortitude even in the face of a heartwrenching defeat, and invited her onto his show.

"He basically was just like, 'I'd love to have you on one of my shows one day,'" Keys said on the podcast. "I was like, 'OK, call me when you have an opening? ... I mean, I sit there and watch 'Food Network' 24 hours a day, so it was really fun."

Flay referenced the moment in the episode, telling Keys that she was impressed with her "grace" on the court at that moment.

"I was like, 'I have to tell her that I'm witnessing class on the court,' because it was just so incredible," he said.

In the heat of the kitchen, however, Keys wasn't as complimentary of Flay's tennis chops. Entering the stage by softly pelting Flay with tennis balls, Keys later asked him to demostrate his tennis strokes as he cooked.

"I like the little ballet [footwork], I've never seen that on a tennis court," she joked.