The Grandstand Court witnessed a remarkable encounter on Saturday. This season’s Australian Open queen Madison Keys was up against a formidable rival, Germany’s Eva Lys. While the pre-match expectations were mostly siding with Keys, the end result was far from it. Lys gave the American WTA star a run for her money. So much so that it edged to a nail-biting finish. Keys has a tendency to rebound and claw her was back from the jaws of defeat. From a point where she nearly lost the match, the World No.6 somehow turned things around, hilariously, to her own astonishment.

Lys began the proceedings one-sided. She snatched the first set with a breadstick against the slam winner. However, Keys then responded equally, taking the second set 6-3. But it was the decider that was action-packed and popcorn-worthy. At one point, Lys was leading 3-0 on her way to taking the second round. But Keys was unrelenting. She leveled the score yet again in the last set and was on the verge of victory at 5-4. Cue, plot twist. Lys fought back, determined, and forced the battle into a tie-break after the set reached 6-6. It was at this moment, though, that Keys really burst through. The tiebreak was one-sided as she snatched her ticket to the next round with a final score line of 1-6, 6-3, 7-6(1).

Of course, the American star was extremely happy with her performance. But during the post-match interview with Tennis Channel‘s Prakash Amritraj, she was amused with the way she won. The host curiously shed light on a special habit of Keys’ where she’s “come back from the brink (of defeat) a bunch of times this year.” Keys responded, saying, “Yeah,” to which Prakash told her, “That’s a pretty special talent, you know. Well, I mean..I don’t know.” Having no better way to react, Keys just said, “I mean, better than the alternative, I suppose. But also, like, what am I doing?”

The alternative here is losing, for which the host said, “Well, you obviously never do that.” “Well, okay, that’s fair. But look, the good news is, it didn’t end that way. Found a way to come back. A lot of players might not have found a way to come back.” While still perplexed about this specific acknowledgement, she commented, “Okay, that’s great. But like, what am I doing?”

Prakash then decided to close out the unintentionally humorous interaction, saying, “You know, Mady, I can’t answer that. I really can’t. But it is, it’s always unbelievably entertaining to watch.” Left in splits, Keys humbly said, “Well, I’m glad you guys are entertained.”

But coming back to the match itself, it was one hell of a rollercoaster ride for Keys. And she made it evident with a post-match reaction that revealed her real motivation behind the comeback against Lys.

Madison Keys on what made her win a tough Cincinnati encounter

For the uninitiated, Saturday’s match marked the first meeting between Madison Keys and Eva Lys. While the American has been a former Cincinnati queen on the hard court, she still couldn’t figure out a way to dominate the German. Simply because she didn’t have a clue about her playing style beforehand.

After losing the first set, it looked almost difficult to see her make a return. Still, she made it in the end. After her Australian Open triumph, Keys has struggled a lot to overcome lower-ranked players. Yes, she’s won a total of 14 of her eighteen encounters against opponents outside of top 50. But three of her recent losses have come frequently since June. After a QF run in Paris, she lost early at the Queen’s Club, then in Berlin, and also at Wimbledon.

So playing against Lys, there was an added pressure of staying composed. “I just kept trying to listen to everyone here cheering me,” she said as reported by WTA’s website on August 10. Perhaps that was the biggest reason of motivation for the World No.6. “It helped me get back into the match and across the finish line.” Going forward, she will hope for the crowd to keep backing her the same way.

In the second round, Keys will now be up against Japan’s Aoi Ito. It will be their maiden face-off on the WTA level. Do you think the American will easily win this battle or will the World No.94 make her work hard similar to Lys? Let us know in the comments below.