Madison Keys arrived in Australia under the radar and with the modest goal of seeing how well she could perform with her 30th birthday looming next month. The resilient American now has the answer after defeating two-time defending champion Aryna Sabalenka in three sets in Saturday’s Australian Open final. It is Keys’s first major title, having reached a second Grand Slam final eight years after her first in New York. She lost on that occasion to Sloane Stephens.
The 6-3, 6-0 loss has rankled ever since, but it was also a learning experience.
“I think during that match I was so consumed with being nervous and the moment and the opportunity and all of that, that I never really gave myself a chance to actually play,” she said this week.
“I think the big thing for me has just been knowing that there are going to be a lot of moments where I’m uncomfortable in the match.
“It’s going to be stressful. You have thousands of people watching you.”
Now ranked 14, Keys will return to the top 10 for the first time since 2019 next week.
She made her first semi-final at Melbourne Park in 2015 as a prodigious 19-year-old to showcase her potential.
A decade on, she defeated world number two Iga Swiatek in the last four this time to set up a showdown with world number one Sabalenka.
The Belarusian had been attempting to become the first woman to win three Melbourne crowns in a row since Martina Hingis from 1997-1999.
But Keys, the 19th seed and underdog, made a nonsense of all that to clinch the title 6-3, 2-6, 7-5 in an absorbing final.
‘Sharpening the axe’
Keys ended her season early in October last year and married her coach, Bjorn Fratangelo, a month later.
The two players had been dating since 2017 and Fratangelo became her coach in 2023.
Fratangelo told reporters on the eve of the final that he felt Keys’s best was yet to come.
“I think she’s nowhere near her full potential,” said Fratangelo, a fellow American who won the boys’ singles at the 2011 French Open.
“Sharpening the axe can get you so far, but sometimes you just need new tools. I think that’s what I’ve tried to bring to the table.”
Sabalenka and Keys both boast a power game that can overwhelm opponents.
After losing the semi-final, Swiatek talked about Keys’s “bravery” in going for big shots at big moments.
Fratangelo described Sabalenka on the eve of the final as “a little more of the polished version of Madison”.
“But what I’ve seen from her now is just what the greats do,” he said of Keys.
“They have the ability to raise the level when it matters most.”
And so it proved on Saturday as Keys clinched the 10th title of her career, and biggest, for an early 30th birthday present.
Keys did it the hard way, beating former Melbourne finalists Danielle Collins and Elena Rybakina on the way.
She then came from a set down and saved a match point against world number two Swiatek in the semi-finals.
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