Poutine, smoked meat and bagels. Three foods long associated with Montreal.
Has Madison Keys tried them?
“I've had the smoked meat, and I've had the bagels,” said Keys. “Personally, I still take a New York bagel. Sorry. (Montreal bagels) are a little sweet for me. I prefer the saltier New York bagels, but the smoked meat was great,” the 30-year-old added with a laugh.
No one would begrudge the native of Illinois for her take, especially given her efforts to make the world a better place.
Keys, for example, founded Kindness Wins, which according to its website, “promotes kindness to youth, kindness to self and kindness to others in times of struggle.”
If poutine, smoked meat and bagels are a Big Three of sorts in Montreal, Keys is part of a Big Three on the court.
She aligns with Coco Gauff and Iga Swiatek as 2025 Slam winners, getting the ball rolling dramatically at the Australian Open with a different racquet that added more control to her already devastating power.
Keys saved a match point against Swiatek in the semi-finals before edging World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka in another three-set thriller.
Unlike Gauff and Swiatek – still in contention, too, at the National Bank Open presented by Rogers – Keys had never won a Slam.
Even she wondered if it would ever happen after being labelled one of tennis’ can’t miss prospects when bursting onto the scene as a teenager.
Keys wasn’t a teen but not far off it when she made the final in Montreal in 2016. It feels like a lifetime ago for the current no. 8.
“I sometimes laugh because, what is it, they say when you are 25, your frontal lobe fully forms,” she said rather scientifically. “I feel like a completely different person from five years ago, from 10 years ago.”
“I think for me in my kind of career I think a lot of things have had to happen the way that they did just for me to kind of be who I am at this point. I'm really proud of everything that I've accomplished, but I think that I don't know if I would have been able to achieve kind of some of the things that I have been had I not gone through some of the struggles earlier, as much as I wish that I could have just bypassed them.
“I just feel like I'm a very different person, and I feel like year to year on this tour you're constantly relearning things, and new pressures come up, and you have to learn how to navigate them. I think that's what is so special I think to tennis is that each year looks very different.”
At the current time, things are rosy for Keys, who continues to be coached by husband Bjorn Fratangelo, a former junior Grand Slam winner.
Beset by numerous injuries in the past, a healthy Keys is on course to play more matches than ever in a single season.
And when Keys topped an in-form Caty McNally on Friday, it marked her eighth win of 2025 after dropping the first set. That number in the previous five seasons? Ten – combined.
Besides feeling good physically, tactical tweaks have helped.
“I felt like a lot of times I would maybe get a little bit too tentative in really important points and play a little bit too safe, but I definitely have a lot more confidence now, especially switching racquets, that I just have a little bit more control, and I can do the things that I want to do a little bit easier,” said Keys.
“So, I feel like there's probably a few things that have helped influence just being able to stay kind of gritty through these matches.”
Her next opponent, Karolina Muchova, is bound to test Keys’ resolve with numerous backhand slices.
The 2023 French Open finalist was already a master of changing pace but is hitting that shot more in her comeback from a left wrist injury. The drive backhands, however, have returned.
It could be a classic in this exceptional year for Keys. Perhaps some poutine beckons if she goes all the way.
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