As an American whose ranking jumped to a career-high in the Top 5 as a result of her early success this season, there are also a lot of eyes on Keys in her return to U.S. soil. And after top seeds didn’t perform as well in back-to-back WTA 1000s in the Middle East, the women’s draw appears to be wide open for the taking.
But Keys isn’t letting any outside noise get the better of her. Tennis Channel analyst and Keys’ former coach, Lindsay Davenport, admitted on a media call that Indian Wells has never been Keys’ favorite surface (she’s only made the quarterfinals once in 11 trips to the desert), so persevering in her first tournament post-Slam title will be tough.
Read more: Will Madison Keys and the top tier reassert themselves at Indian Wells?
“Staying really grounded in that is going to be really important,” Keys continued. “I think really just trying to go back to what worked [in Australia] and what we were doing and what we were focusing on and continuing to try to keep that mindset.”
