Madison Keys Reveals What She Actually Wants To Do To Knock Coco Gauff out of French Open

As Madison Keys gears up for a blockbuster quarterfinal conflict towards fellow American Coco Gauff on the 2025 French Open, the 30-year-old veteran is taking a second to mirror on the matchup.

Whereas their sixth profession assembly guarantees to be a bodily battle on the pink clay of Roland Garros, Keys revealed that her reference to Gauff runs deeper than their head-to-head file.

Madison Keys Will Take On Coco Gauff for the Sixth Time on the WTA Tour

At present making her thirteenth look on the French Open, Keys has stormed into the final eight with commanding wins over Daria Saville, Katie Boulter, thirty first seed Sofia Kenin, and Hailey Baptiste. Now, because the seventh seed in Paris, she’s set to tackle second seed Gauff on June 4.

Whereas Keys leads their rivalry 3-2, the Florida native is aware of it’ll take greater than previous success to beat a participant who has developed into one of the formidable clay-court opponents on the tour.

“She’s clearly fairly dominant on clay,” Keys mentioned throughout her post-match press convention after defeating Baptiste within the fourth spherical. “I’d say it’s in all probability one in every of her greatest surfaces to play on. So it’s clearly a giant problem.”

Discussing technique, Keys emphasised the bodily and psychological grind of taking part in towards Gauff. “For me, it’s going to be so much about making an attempt to stability going after issues, however figuring out along with her potential to cowl the courtroom, you’re going to must win the purpose a number of occasions earlier than it’s truly over,” she defined. “That’s all the time one of many trickier issues if you’re taking part in somebody who strikes in addition to she does.”

The 2017 US Open finalist additionally pointed to Gauff’s potential to flip factors shortly if she features management of the rally. “You even have the risk towards her that if at any level you sort of lose management of the purpose, she’s going to be the aggressor. So I feel the most important factor is the stability of going for issues however with sufficient margin that it’s a repeatable ball, shot after shot.”

Past techniques and type, Keys was candid when requested about her relationship with Gauff, who additionally hails from the state of Florida, and the way their private connection provides to their rivalry. Keys chuckled as she recalled assembly a younger Gauff lengthy earlier than {the teenager} made her mark on the tour.

“In my head, she was like 9 years previous,” Keys mentioned with a smile. “She was so younger and never even on the professional tour but. Simply sort of watching her play, I knew that she was going to be somebody that was going to be fairly dominant fairly shortly.”

“She simply carried herself with such poise for as younger as she is,” Keys added. “Even to at the present time, I’m all the time so impressed by the best way that she handles the strain. All of it, at such a younger age, is among the issues that I feel she’s finished an exceptional job at.”

Keys admitted that their nine-year age hole results in some amusing generational disconnects. “Typically I really feel very previous when speaking to Coco as a result of she says issues, and I’m like, ‘Yeah, I don’t get that.’ So there’s positively a giant age hole that’s typically shockingly apparent.”