"Proud" Madison Keys leaves Australian Open with "head held high"

Madison Keys said she was "proud" of how she handled all that came with returning to the site of her Grand Slam breakthrough at the 2026 Australian Open.

Keys, a surprise, if long-awaited, champion at the end of last year's Melbourne fortnight, was taking positives from her return Down Under after her title defense ended in the fourth round at the hands of good friend Jessica Pegula on Monday.

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"Just one of those days where I feel like Jess beat me, and I can kind of walk away with my head held high," she told reporters after the 6-3, 6-4 defeat.

"Honestly, I'd say it feels way better losing and still being defending champion, because it means you've won. So, again, it's not like the world is ending because I lost today. ... Obviously disappointed, but I'm really trying to not live and die on every single win and loss at this point in my career."

Keys won her first three matches in straight sets, which included a 7-6(6), 6-1 win over Ukrainian Oleksandra Oliynykova in the first round where she trailed 4-0 in the first set and later saved two set points in the ensuing tiebreaker. She also came from 5-2 down in the second set of her 6-1, 7-5 second-round win over compatriot Ashlyn Krueger.

After famously retooling her serve ahead of winning the Australian Open a year ago, Keys said she continued to tinker with her game in her return to Melbourne—a commitment she hopes will serve her now and into the future.

"I'm really proud of myself for being very clear-headed and trying to problem-solve, and I think overall there were a lot of really, a lot of positives from this tournament, and some kind of strides forward," she said.

"I think that I was open to trying new things, open to trying to implement some of the things that we have been working on, and that's not always the easiest thing to do, especially here, just coming back and having that extra layer of pressure.

"But for all of those things, I'm super proud of myself for. Then there is a handful of things that I'm going to go back and keep practicing, and I have 11 more months of the year to try to implement them into my game."

While her barnstorming run to the Daphne Akhurst Memorial Cup was one of the more memorable tournament runs in recent memory—she won five of her seven matches in three sets, saved match points against Iga Swiatek in the semifinals, and denied Aryna Sabalenka a three-peat in the final— Keys added that her best tennis may still be in front of her, even as her 31st birthday approaches next month.

"I think there is still a lot of runway for things that I can improve on," she said. "I'm definitely finding that there are some things that are harder to kind of change at this point, just because habits are pretty set in their ways.

"So I feel like there are some things that I'm still picking up easily and just kind of being open to switching, and then there are some things that have just taken a little bit more time to try to fully figure out.

"I think those are the things that I'm still trying to improve, and those are kind of the things that we just keep going back to. When we have the opportunities to practice them, really emphasizing them and harping on them and trying to get better at them.

"So there is definitely still, I think, a lot of things that I can get better at, and I think that's still pretty exciting for this point in my career."