After 15 years of professional tennis, world quantity 14 Madison Keys is aware of a factor or two about rolling with the punches. Lower than two months after a leg harm ended her 2024 Wimbledon run, Keys, 29, is already again to battle for her subsequent title: She’s taking up 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 response to The New York Occasions. When Keys returned from a medical timeout along with her thigh closely taped, the Occasions reported, the severity of the harm turned clear. Finally, she determined to bow out, holding again tears as she walked off the grass to applause.
“Effectively… The ending of yesterday’s match was most likely one in every of my hardest moments ever on court docket,” Keys wrote in a Fb publish the subsequent day. Seems she’d harm her hamstring. Whereas the injury was restricted to a “minor muscle tear,” in response to Keys, it nonetheless required time to heal.
“With the ability to have that chunk of time [off] has been actually helpful, and I’m feeling tremendous assured in my physique and my means to exit and compete once more,” Keys says.
However the expertise inevitably dealt a psychological blow too. “You type of should rebuild confidence again together with your physique after an harm,” Keys says—not solely taking a bit to get better, but additionally beginning off gradual when it comes time to work on regaining energy, pace, 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 “principally performed each single hamstring and adductor train that’s ever been created.”
Keys has tried to prioritize her psychological well being, too, by consuming effectively, sleeping sufficient, and doing actions she enjoys. Simply setting apart 5 to 10 minutes each evening to do her skincare routine is “very cathartic and enjoyable” for the wonder fanatic, who has partnered with the scientific wellness firm Thorne. Her present fave merchandise general—for morning or nighttime—embrace retinol (“I’m beginning to dabble…as I’m inching towards 30”), Dealer Joe’s marula oil (“It is completely definitely worth the [money] that I spent on it”), and, after all, sunscreen, particularly choices from La Roche-Posay (“I principally slather myself from head to toe,” she jokes). Then, after all, there’s residence renovations and marriage ceremony planning—she moved home and received engaged to her longtime boyfriend inside the final two years—all on high of US Open prep.
