The champion of the Australian Open, Madison Keys, said “never too late” to reach the maximum race after achieving another impressive feat in a historic season when arriving at the quarterfinals of Roland Garros on Monday.
The 30-year title, which won the first Grand Slam title in Melbourne in January, arrived at the France Open last eight for the first time since 2019 with a 6-3 and 7-5 victory over his American partner Hailey Baptiste.
Read: Australia Open: Madison Keys Stuns Sabalenka for the first Grand Slam title
Keys reached the semifinals in Paris in 2018 and the last eight of the following year, but is playing in the second week for the second time since then.
“There is a lot of pressure to do it immediately when you are a superior junior, and I think you sometimes lose the fun of everything and all the incredible experience you can have by being a professional tennis player,” said Keys, who became professional at the age of 14.
“I think the most important thing is that it is really too late. Obviously I had a lot of success at the beginning of my career, and then I don’t cross the line until a few months ago.”
Keys, sown Sevth in Paris, had made six Grand Slam semifinals before lifting his first important trophy.
“There really is no time limit, and I think many of us, as time passes, and we will house it, we feel that time is fleeing,” added the 2017 open runner -up.
“So I think there is no time limit. Anything can happen at any time.”
Then, he will face another American in Coco Gounds for a semifinal place after former United States Open winner Ekaterina Alexandrova.
Keys has won three of her five previous meetings with the 21 -year -old, although Gound came out at the top of her only previous Grand Slam meeting in Flushing Meadows in 2022.
“It’s a lot of fun, a girl or seeing it so well at such an early age,” Keys said about his fourth -final opponent. “Sometimes I feel very old when I talk to Coco, because she says, and I am, as,” yes, I don’t understand that. “
“So there is definitely a large age gap that is sometimes surprisingly obvious.”
The world number eight said Arting in the French Capital was refreshed after an early starting surprise in Rome to Peyton Stearns.
The third seed of the United States, Jessica Pegula, pointed out the exhausting nature of the European Swing of the clay court after its shock against the French wildcard Lois Boisson on Monday.
“I actually went home after I lost early in Rome,” Keys added. “Then, somehow, I think it was a blessing disguised for me, because I could go home a little more than a week.”