Madison Keys was born on February 17, 1995, in Rock Island, Illinois, to Rick and Christine Keys. Her father was a Division 3 All-American college basketball player at Augustana College. Keys also has an older sister named Sydney and two younger sisters named Montana and Hunter.
Keys started playing tennis at the Quad-city tennis club in Moline. She moved to Florida at the age of 10 to train at the Evert Tennis Academy, which was founded by John Evert, but also partly run by tennis legend Chris Evert.
The American had a shorter junior career than many players. She peaked at No. 16 in the junior rankings and won many tournaments, but began to play ITF pro circuit events instead from a young age. Her trademark powerful serving and baseline hitting already existed as a junior player.
She won her first match at WTA Tour level at the 2011 US Open after being given a wildcard. Keys’ made a bigger breakthrough in 2013, with consistent results that year, seeing her end the season inside the Top 50. Her maiden WTA title came in Eastbourne the next year.
She defeated Angelique Kerber in the final. 2015 led to a higher level of success at Grand Slams. Keys progressed to the semifinal at the Australian Open, which included a quarterfinal triumph against Venus Williams. Her run in Melbourne was ended by Serena Williams.
She also reached the Wimbledon quarterfinal in 2015. Keys broke new ground at the WTA 1000 level in 2016. She made finals on the clay courts of Rome and the hard courts of Montreal but finished as the runner-up in both tournaments. The American then suffered a wrist injury that hampered her for the next year.
Her injury issues meant expectations were somewhat low for Keys at the 2017 US Open, but she had a stunning run in New York. After winning her opening three rounds, Keys knocked out fourth seed Elina Svitolina to reach the quarterfinal.
The American played incredible tennis in the quarterfinal and semifinal against Kaia Kanepi and CoCo Vandeweghe to reach her maiden Grand Slam final. Unfortunately, she could not find her best level in the final and lost to close friend Sloane Stephens in straight sets. Keys has come close to making a second Grand Slam final in subsequent years by reaching four more semifinals.
This included a heartbreaking loss in a final-set tiebreak to Aryna Sabalenka at the 2023 US Open after the American had served for the match in the second set.
However, Keys did claim a maiden WTA 1000 title at the 2019 Cincinnati Open by beating Svetlana Kuznetsova. She won her seventh WTA title by triumphing in Eastbourne again in 2023, and Keys remains a formidable player on the WTA Tour.
