“I feel like I’m getting older and everyone else is getting younger somehow,” Madison Keys joked after her first-round win at the Australian Open. Can you believe she’s turning 30 next month? Even though she’s accomplished so much – nine WTA titles, six Grand Slam semifinals, second only to Aryna Sabalenka among her peers – she admits to being a bit resistant to change in the past. But now she’s embracing it. Keys is in the Australian Open semifinals for the third time, and she’s determined to leave the injury-plagued 2024 behind. So, what’s different this year?

Madison Keys, who debuted on the professional tennis scene at just 14 years old in 2009, decided it was time for an overhaul. New strategies, new equipment, and a fresh mindset, all with the help of her husband and coach, Bjorn Fratangelo, fueled her comeback.

Last year was a tough one for Keys. A shoulder injury forced her to withdraw from the 2024 Australian Open. In July, while leading her fourth-round match against Jasmine Paolini at Wimbledon, she suffered a hamstring injury and had to retire despite holding a 5-2 lead in the third set. She also missed the Paris Olympics and exited the US Open in the third round. These setbacks made one thing clear: it was time to make changes.

To find solutions, Keys worked closely with Fratangelo, starting with a critical adjustment—her racket.

The 29-year-old tennis player had been loyal to her Wilson racket for years, but during the off-season, she made a bold switch. Veteran agent Max Eisenbud was skeptical when he heard one of his longtime clients, Madison Keys, was thinking about a late-career shakeup. But her husband advocated strongly for the change.

In December, during an exhibition match with Sloane Stephens, she was spotted using a blacked-out Yonex Ezone instead of her usual Wilson Blade Pro. Explaining the decision to WTA tour Madison Keys shared how the Yonex racket felt different.

“It just feels like I have the ability to kind of maneuver things a little bit easier,” she said. “I felt like in the past using my equipment, it was always either really good or really bad. I had a really hard time on days where I wasn’t really feeling it. Being able to tweak things, it felt really difficult to do that. This, I feel like I have a little bit more control over the average days and being able to find a happy medium.”

So what other changes has the American star made to her game?

Madison Keys opens up on her changed serve motion

Switching rackets wasn’t the only major change Madison Keys made. She also reworked her serve, a key weapon she’s relied on for over a decade. Her husband, Fratangelo, had to actually drag her ‘kicking and screaming’ as per WTA Tour to change her serve.

It was necessary since she would want a serve that didn’t stress her shoulder and hamstring as they were previously injured. Keys along with her husband began tweaking her serve technique before last autumn’s Asian swing.

Her previous serve motion was almost too safe, which affected her first-serve points won. “It was almost too high, to where I was playing it a little bit safe, but my first-serve points won wasn’t as high as it should be,” she explained in the same interview.

Adapting to the new serve wasn’t easy. “It took a while for me to be OK to serve at 62% or 58%. That was kind of the hard thing for me—just getting to the point of going for it more and getting more free points is actually better than making every single first serve,” Keys said.

She further explained, “Stats definitely helped me there, and it kind of took me out of how I was feeling and put me into a little bit more of a reality.”

The changes seem to be paying off. The World No.10(in live rankings) is now in the semi-finals of the Australian Open for the third time in her career. She’s set to face World No.2 Iga Swiatek for a chance to play in the second final(first since 2017 US Open) today.

Keys’ journey back to form is a testament to her willingness to adapt and evolve. Can her revamped game take her all the way to the title?