After 15 years of professional tennis, world No. 14 Madison Keys is aware of a factor or two about rolling with the punches. Lower than two months after a leg damage ended her 2024 Wimbledon run, Keys, 29, is already again to battle for her subsequent title: She’s taking over the US Open—the ultimate main of the 2024 season and her “absolute favourite” of all of them, as she tells SELF.
On July 7, Keys was only some factors away from beating Italy’s Jasmine Paolini to safe a spot within the Wimbledon quarterfinals when her left leg buckled as she tried to return a shot, in accordance with The New York Occasions. When Keys returned from a medical timeout together with her thigh closely taped, the Occasions reported, the severity of the damage grew to become clear. In the end, she determined to bow out, holding again tears as she walked off the grass to applause.
“Properly… The ending of yesterday’s match was most likely one among my hardest moments ever on court docket,” Keys wrote in a Fb submit the subsequent day. Seems she’d damage her hamstring. Whereas the harm was restricted to a “minor muscle tear,” in accordance with Keys, it nonetheless required time to heal.
“With the ability to have that chunk of time [off] has been actually helpful, and I am feeling tremendous assured in my physique and my capacity to exit and compete once more,” Keys says.
However the expertise inevitably dealt a psychological blow, too. “You form of should rebuild confidence again along with your physique after an damage,” Keys says—not solely taking a bit to get well, but in addition beginning off gradual when it comes time to work on regaining energy, velocity, flexibility, and endurance. The final level has been an enormous focus: Within the lead-up to the US Open, Keys says she’s been “going two to 2 and a half hours a day on the court docket” to get her physique acclimated to the real-world calls for of a match. And within the final seven weeks or so, she says she’s “mainly performed each single hamstring and adductor train that’s ever been created.”
Keys has tried to prioritize her psychological well being too, by consuming properly, sleeping sufficient, and doing actions she enjoys. Simply setting apart 5 to 10 minutes each night time to do her skincare routine is “very cathartic and enjoyable” for the sweetness fanatic, who has partnered with the well being know-how firm Thorne. Her present fave merchandise general—for morning or nighttime—embody retinol (“I’m beginning to dabble … as I am inching towards 30”), Dealer Joe’s marula oil (“It is completely well worth the [money] that I spent on it”), and, in fact, sunscreen, particularly choices from La Roche-Posay. (“I mainly slather myself from head to toe,” she jokes.) Then, in fact, there’s house renovations and marriage ceremony planning—she moved home and bought engaged to her longtime boyfriend inside the final two years—all on prime of US Open prep.
