Australian Open champion Madison Keys hopes the stigma around therapy in sport continues to be ground down so that others can achieve the kind of release which carried her to this title.
There is much talk of legacy in this sport and that is normally calculated by weight of silverware. But if Keys’ triumph here in Melbourne can stand as a symbol of what can be achieved when a struggling athlete is brave enough to allow themselves to be helped – what a powerful and lasting legacy that would leave.
The 29-year-old estimates that the talk of her winning a Grand Slam began when she was 11 or 12 years old.
‘It was meant to be confidence-building but as I got older and it didn’t happen, it feels like, will this ever actually happen?,’ said Keys after beating world No1 Aryna Sabalenka in a superb final.
‘So it went from being something positive to something that was almost like panic. “Why hasn’t it happened yet? Why haven’t I been able to do it?”’
The contrast in Keys’ two Grand Slam finals could not have been greater. In the 2017 Us Open final against her good friend Sloane Stephens – one of the first to congratulate her on Saturday night – Keys was crippled by nerves. Eight years later against Sabalenka on Rod Laver Arena, she played with utter conviction and not an atom of fear.
Madison Keys secured her first ever Grand Slam title at the Australian Open, nearly eight years on from crumbling under the pressure in her last Grand Slam final at the 2017 US Open
Keys, who was ranked as No19 seed going into the final, defeated world No1 Aryna Sabalenka in a stunning upset victory, denying the Belarusian a third straight Australian Open title
Keys has credited ‘lots of therapy’ as key to overcoming mental health struggles on the court
Asked how she ended that spiral of negative thoughts, Keys replied: ‘Lots of therapy.’ And this is not sports science, this is, as Keys says: ‘Digging in on how I felt about myself and really being honest.’
Mental health struggles are common in tennis and it is no wonder. It is a brutal, individual sport where athletes travel the world, away from loved ones, for 30-40 weeks of the year. If you don’t win, you don’t earn and, for all but the top couple of players in the world, most weeks end in defeat.
Asked if she sees therapy becoming more common in the game, Keys said: ‘The more we talk about using it as a tool, people will feel more comfortable with it.
‘The WTA does a great job having someone at tournaments that you can talk to. It’s helpful for a lot of us.
‘The stigma around therapy in general, not just in sports, is slowly starting to go away.
‘It’s something I will continue to do for the rest of my life. If more people do it and more people talk about it, then it just becomes the norm. It’s almost as if you’re going to the doctor. No one bats an eye at that.
‘I think it’s overwhelmingly needed, for most people.’
