Madison Keys has a new coach and a new approach.
Working with coach Jim Madrigal, Keys is treating second-serve returns as tee-off time.
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Madrigal was the head coach of Belmont University in Tennessee for 18 years before he guided Tennys Sandgren to his best year on the ATP Tour in 2018.
The coach has urged Keys to step in and rip returns.
"His biggest thing is being more aggressive on second-serve returns," Keys told the media in Melbourne. "For the longest time, it had always been—I have always been told, you know, don't go for as much and be safer and all that. And he thinks the reverse of that and says, No, go for it, commit to it.
"It's actually been working better for me, thinking that way, so that's been the biggest thing."
Keys won 67 percent of her second-serve returns and hit seven of her 35 winners on return in a 6-3, 6-4 win over 17-year-old Anastasia Potapova.
Hall of Famer Billie Jean King famously said: "If you're going to miss, miss big, miss going for it.
Committing to the aggressive approach suits the 2017 US Open finalist's explosive game.
"I think that's why it seems to work for me, because my tennis is not passive or kind of one foot in, one foot out," Keys said. "It's fully committed and swinging. When I'm doing that, even if I miss, it's usually a good hit. So then I can make adjustments versus making a mistake because I was too passive."
The victory vaults the 23-year-old Keys into a third-round meeting with 12th-seeded Elise Mertens.
The 2018 semifinalist swept Russian Margarita Gasparyan, 6-1, 7-5.
Mertens, whose playing doubles with Shenzhen champ Aryna Sabalenka, is coached by David Taylor, who coached Keys last season.
"She's going to be a tough match," Keys said. "I just remember playing her at US Open. It was a close one.
"She's had a great year and a half, and I'm going to have to go and watch what she's been doing the last couple of matches and see if I have a good game plan for her."
Photo credit: Mark Peterson/Corleve