US Open star downed double shot of tequila after brutally losing final in 61 minutes

Madison Keys has revealed that she took a double shot of tequila after suffering a devastating defeat in her first Grand Slam final at the 2017 US Open. Keys spent just over an hour on court, hitting 30 unforced errors as Sloane Stephens thrashed her 6-3 6-0.

It was a bruising experience for Keys, the 15th seed at the time. Eight years later, she's finally a Grand Slam champion, lifting the trophy at this year's Australian Open. And she has now shed light on exactly what happened after losing her first Major final.

Keys recently launched a podcast, The Player's Box, with her rivals and colleagues, Jessica Pegula, Jennifer Brady, and Desirae Krawczyk. The American tennis stars hope to share insight into life on the tennis tour, and the current world No. 6 decided to launch the podcast with a hilarious anecdote.

In their first-ever episode, which launched at the beginning of this year's US Open, the quartet reflected on their memories in Flushing Meadows, and Keys brought up her 2017 final defeat to Stephens.

At the time, Stephens was ranked down at No. 83 in the world, having returned from an 11-month injury layoff just a few weeks earlier. When she made her comeback, Stephens was ranked as low as 957th but climbed back up after reaching two WTA 1000 semi-finals. Keys, meanwhile, was the heavy favourite as the No. 15 seed.

But she was blown off the court in 61 minutes, and she has now confessed that she was handed a double shot of tequila after leaving Arthur Ashe Stadium in tears.

"When I lost the US Open final in approximately 47 minutes and played horrendously and was so nervous, and I went off court, and you know the bathroom that's right off of the court on Ashe? I just sat on the ground. I started sobbing," Keys told her co-hosts, slightly underselling the amount of time she spent on court.

"One of the WTA comms people peeks her head around the corner and she's like, So we need you for post-match. I'm like, I'm fine. Everything's fine. I'm fine. I'm just fine. I'm okay. I got out, got back out there. Somehow make it through. Somehow make it through. I don't even know what I said."

After getting through the trophy presentation and her runner-up speech, Keys was greeted by former doubles No. 1 Mattek-Sands, who knew exactly what to do to cheer her up.

She continued: "But I make it through, come off the court, walk into the locker room and the first person I see is Bethanie Mattek-Sands and she hands me a cup with some sort of liquid in it. Have no idea what it was. I just shot it.

"I was like, tequila, great. I haven't eaten anything for a few hours and just played a match, but awesome, I think I just had a double shot of tequila. That'll be great."

It didn't end there, as an emotional Keys then went to meet Emma Stone, who had been in the stands and wanted to say hi to the runner-up. "I take a shower, and as I'm walking out before I go to press, someone pulls me into the presidential suite area and they're like, someone wants to meet you, and it's Emma Stone," the Aussie Open champion recalled.

"The Billie Jean King movie had just come out, and that was when she played Billie. So I see Emma Stone and she's like, you did amazing, and I'm like, no, I didn't. I immediately started crying again, and then I had to go into press, and I was like, wow, I think I kind of feel that tequila, which could be better to get through press or not, I guess we'll see."

It was certainly an experience for Keys. But she finally achieved her dream of winning a Grand Slam title earlier this year, going on an incredible run at the Australian Open and beating Iga Swiatek and Aryna Sabalenka back-to-back to lift the trophy.

But it wasn't to be for Keys in Flushing Meadows this year, as she suffered a shock first-round defeat to Renata Zarazua.

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