Madison Keys isn’t looking to retrace her steps to another Australian Open title in a return to Brisbane and potential clash with Aryna Sabalenka.
The American claimed her maiden grand slam title at 29 at Melbourne Park last year, a popular victor after a two-hour battle with two-time defending champion Sabalenka to become the fourth-oldest maiden women’s major winner.
Keys had won in Adelaide in the lead-up and failed to win another title and was routed 6-0 6-1 by a vengeful Sabalenka in the Indian Wells semi-final two months later, but still finished the year at a career-best No.7 in the world.
“The three weeks that I was able to put together, not sure you could really write a better story,” Keys said on Saturday of her dream Australian double last year.
“I have learned that you can’t ever really replicate what you used to do. I think that’s a really hard thing to do.
“The way that things unfolded last year, that’s just how they happened to work out.
“So you start every year at zero, and you want to play as well as you can for as many of those weeks.
“But I have definitely tried to start getting away from trying to redo previous years.”
Seven of the top 10 players in the world headline the 48-player field from Sunday, with former finalist Keys back after playing in Auckland a year earlier.
Sabalenka won in Brisbane last year and met Keys in the Melbourne Park final, regarded as one of the matches of the year, with both riding 11-match winning streaks.
Both have first-round byes, with top-seed and world No.1 Sabalenka slated to meet the fifth-seeded Keys in a quarterfinal.
“This week has always been one of those weeks where the field is pretty difficult and tough,” Keys said of the stacked entry list.
“There is not a ton of places for all of us to go and play. We’ll inevitably all end up in the same place … it always kind of brings out the best in all of us.”
Keys, now 30, won her first WTA Tour match when she was 14 and said that experience meant her grand slam breakthrough hadn’t dramatically changed life on the road.
“There is obviously a lot of pressure that comes with doing as well as I did last year, but not very many people get to go into this swing being a defending champion,” she said.
“So I’m trying really just to appreciate that and enjoy the position that I have put myself in.”
