Keys back in Grand Slam mode in Paris after 'elusive' major triumph

Madison Keys said Friday she was back in Grand Slam mode at the French Open after the emotional rollercoaster of her "elusive" major triumph at the Australian Open.

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Keys beat two-time defending champion Aryna Sabalenka in Melbourne in January to win her first Grand Slam title at the age of 29.

"From the time I was 14, I just always wanted to win a Grand Slam, and what would that feel like? It was just kind of always an unknown," she told reporters at Roland Garros.

"It was just always kind of still the elusive question, and then to finally achieve it and feel that success, have that achievement and then kind of go home and then think, okay, wait, this is the first time that I don't not know anymore.

"It's, I did it."

The 30-year-old American, the seventh seed, faces a qualifier in the first round of Roland Garros, a tournament she has played in 12 times. Her best display was a run to the semi-finals in 2018.

After Melbourne she reached the semi-finals in Indian Wells, with third-round exits in Miami and Charleston on the US hardcourt circuit. On clay, she prepared for Paris with a quarter-final in Madrid and third-round defeat in Rome.

"I know I was basically just horizontal on my couch for a week, just trying to mentally and emotionally just recover," she said of life after her Grand Slam win.

"I think it's just the hard part about tennis is that you have this amazing win and there is a tournament two days later.

"Other sports have months where they get to celebrate it and all that.

"And I think that I have really tried to just kind of take the time to appreciate what I did, what I achieved, and not forget that too quickly."

Her success in Australia came eight years after her first Grand final appearance, which resulted in a one-sided loss to Sloane Stephens at the 2017 US Open.

Keys knows she no longer has that sort of time on her side as she looks to make her mark in Paris.

"The reality is we're at another Grand Slam and someone else is going to be the winner in two weeks. You want to try to do everything that you can to make sure that it's you," she said.

"So I think that's just the biggest thing. Just kind of shifting past goals that you have now achieved and setting new ones.

"I'm obviously at the tail end of my career, and I'm not sure how much longer I'm going to be playing out here and be on the big stages and have those opportunities.

"I like to obviously have those goals of winning another Grand Slam."

GAUFF TAKES FRENCH OPEN 'MOTIVATION' FROM MADRID, ROME LOSSES

Coco Gauff believes she can use the disappointment of her recent runner-up finishes on clay in Madrid and Rome as motivation for her French Open campaign.

Gauff is coming off back-to-back defeats to world No 1 Aryna Sabalenka and Italy's Jasmine Paolini respectively in the finals of both Roland Garros warm-up tournaments.

But the 21-year-old Gauff, a French Open junior champion in 2018, believes she has what it takes to go one step further in Paris.

She played her first Grand Slam final at senior level against Iga Swiatek at the 2022 French Open, losing in straight sets.

A year after that, she won the US Open title.

"I think immediately after it was a tough feeling for me," Gauff recalled Friday of her French Open runner-up finish three years ago.

"I just felt like maybe I could never overcome that. Then I just turned it into motivation.

"I knew that, I don't know, just had a deep-down gut (feeling) that I was going to be in a final position again. I was like, I'm not going to go out like that.

"If I go out, I'm going to leave with my head held high. So I was able to approach that US Open final differently.

"But I definitely think I needed that finals loss to reach this point, for sure."

In Paris, Gauff opens against 93rd-ranked Australian Olivia Gadecki on the red clay surface she is comfortable on and also won the Roland Garros doubles title last year alongside Katerina Siniakova.

"Honestly, I feel like when I was young, I just played on it," said Gauff.

"I feel like at that time I didn't gauge surfaces or anything. I felt like I should just be good at everything.

"I definitely think it's something that I'm comfortable on. I mainly credit it to me probably sliding a lot on a hard court so when I go on clay it just feels a lot easier."

As for her results on clay this season, Gauff said: "It definitely gives me a lot of confidence, but I think I'm just putting those results in the past and focusing on the next two weeks here."