MELBOURNE -- At least year's French Open, Madison Keys paraphrased Maria Sharapova's famous quote when asked to describe her clay court game, saying that instead of being a cow on ice, she was "like a hippo on ice." Clay isn't the only surface posing the occasional difficulty. There is the ground in general. While walking in slippery rain last month in Florida, Keys fell and landed on her elbow.
"The athlete that I am, I went straight down," she said. "Luckily it wasn't completely out in public. Just two people witnessed it and I waved it off, saying that doesn't hurt at all. And then I started crying."
Her fitness trainer assumed the injury occurred on the court but Keys replied no, that she was just walking and something happened. "So, my fitness trainer said, 'OK, we'll work on making sure you can walk without falling over."'
Keys says the elbow is fine now and staying on her feet wasn't much of an issue Thursday in her second-round victory over No. 70 Yaroslava Shvedoa. That wasn't the case in their previous meeting, at Wimbledon 2014. That time, Keys wound up laying on the grass in tears, forced to retire from their third round due to an injured left thigh.
She had to deal with a blistered left toe in the third set Thursday, plus a shaky first set she lost in a tie-breaker. But there were no tears this time. Keys recovered from the first-set loss to beat Shvedova 6-7 (7-4), 6-3, 6-3 in a nearly two-hour match. In addition to keeping the ball in the court more often -- she had 16 unforced errors the first set -- Keys credited her rally to an improved mental approach as the match progressed.
"I think physically I was kind of in the match, but it was kind of a moment where I had to kind of dig deep and figure some things out just to win a couple points here and there in order to win the second set," Keys said. "And then I think I did a really good job of carrying that through into the third set.''
She faces a more formidable opponent in the third round, 2008 French Open champion and No. 23-ranked Ana Ivanovic. The two played once before but Keys said she doesn't remember anything about the match, other than she lost.
"It will be interesting because we do both play similar and have the aggressive style,'' Keys said. "I think whoever kind of gets to strike first is going to be the one who comes out on top."
Keys had her finest performance at a major here last year when she reached the semifinal where she lost to Serena Williams, the woman some hope she will some day pass as America's top-ranked player. That won't be easy -- even at 34, Serena shows little sign of surrendering her No. 1 ranking any time soon -- but Keys has time. She's still only 20, 14 years younger than Williams. She also has been edging up the rankings, reaching as high as No. 16 last year before finishing 2015 at No. 18, the highest for an American not named Williams.
"I think 2015 was a great year," Keys said. I did a lot of great stuff but there was definitely a lot of stuff I need to keep working on. Like being more consistent."
Keys clearly has the power. Two hours into Thursday's match, she was serving at nearly 120 miles per hour. And her groundstroke is so strong that at the 2014 French Open, her 80 mph average speed was faster than any male player. She had 17 forehand winners Thursday.
"She can be the best server in the game after Serena retires," ESPN analyst Pam Shriver said. "She has something you can't teach -- that level of power. Whether or not her footwork, her desire, her deep down killer instinct is really there [remains to be seen]."
Keys said she has been working on her mental approach and that is definitely improving. Primarily, she is learning to see any deficit as an inspiration rather than a worry. "Instead of it being a daunting thing, being down a set, just kind of taking it as a challenge," she said. "Knowing that I've worked really hard for this all of the offseason and that I'm ready to be in the position [to win]."
And in position to rise rather than slip and fall.