World No. 5 Madison Keys shared her emotions after defeating Elise Mertens in the third round of the WTA 1000 tournament in Indian Wells 
“It was a tough match today. Obviously, I don’t think I played my best tennis, but the reality is that you have matches like that. The fact that I was able to win gives me the opportunity to play another match here and work on what I couldn’t do today. Playing after winning a Grand Slam title is something else, it’s my first time experiencing that and I try to manage my expectations. I think today, obviously, I didn’t play at my best level. It was disappointing because I’m starting to expect a little bit more from myself. Of course, it’s also an experience that teaches me something.
I played really good tennis in Australia and the more time passes, the more you forget about the problems I had in those matches, the moments when I didn’t play very well. And what remains in your memory is all the really great and joyful things. So days like these remind me of the reality of things. No matter how well I played in Australia, no matter what victories I had, there were still episodes when I didn’t play very well or when things were out of my control. I am very aware of that. Today was a case when I was not at my best, but part of the job is to understand how to win matches when you are not playing well. It brings you back to earth, it brings you back to reality. Honestly, I am very happy that I have another match in this tournament where I have not always performed well. The fact that I was able to overcome such obstacles in today’s match when I did not play well is a really big victory.
“As for the next match [against Croatian Donna Vekic], I hope I have a better day on serve. I think there were moments today where I played really well and got ahead, got an advantage and then let my opponent catch me and get back into the match. I think I’ll have to serve a little bit cleaner, as much as possible.”
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