Madison Keys acknowledges Adelaide has been a happy hunting ground for her and highlights her goal is to keep her perfect record at the tournament.
In Australia's WTA 250 event, the American tennis star is a two-time champion, having made it all the way at the tournament in 2022 and 2025. Overall, the world No. 7 owns a 10-0 record at the tournament.
This year, Keys was supposed to be the No. 2 seed in Adelaide. However, that changed after Jessica Pegula withdrew late from the tournament.
Speaking with the media in her pre-tournament press conference, the defending champion didn't hide that her big goal for this year's tournament was to remain unbeaten and win her third title.
"I've never lost here so far, so I would like to keep that streak alive. That would be a pretty cool record of mine to have. So that's definitely the goal," Keys underlined.
Keys hopes Adelaide will once again set her up nicely for a deep Australian Open run
After winning five matches at the tournament last year, Keys went on to win seven more matches at Melbourne Park and become a Grand Slam champion at the Australian Open. In 2022 – when the American won Adelaide for the first time – she reached the Australian Open semifinal a few weeks later.
"It definitely helped a lot, Twice before I've played Adelaide and I ended up making the semis of the Australian Open. And then last year obviously I went deep," the American tennis star noted.
In the first week of the season in Brisbane, Keys defeated McCartney Kessler and Diana Shnaider before losing to eventual champion Aryna Sabalenka in the quarterfinal.
"Getting as many good matches as possible helps you figure out what's working, what's not working, where to make some tweaks here or there," the American explained.
Keys has a first-round bye and will face either Jelena Ostapenko or Tereza Valentova in the second round.
