Keys Climbs To New Heights, Finally Wins First Slam At Australian Open Ending Sabalenka’s Reign

Madison Keys finally did it, she won a Grand Slam. Long touted as a future winner 16 years ago when she first joined the tour, the American has really come close to reaching those heights. But seven years after her first Slam final at the 2017 US Open, Keys was giving another chance, and she made the most of it.

Keys ended Aryna Sabalenka‘s reign at the Australian with a incredible 6-3, 2-6, 7-5 win over the world No. 1.

“I’ve wanted this for so long,” Keys said on court. “I made my very first Grand Slam semifinal here in Melbourne, so to now have won my first Grand Slam in the same place means the absolute world to me.”

The 29-year-old stormed out to a huge lead at the start of the match as Sabalenka, who was seeking a third straight Australian Open title, stumbled out of the block and appeared nervous.

Up 5-1, Sabalenka finally got her footing and her teeth into the match. Keys’ serving began to slide and Sabalenka reversed course in the second to quickly level.

Just over an hour in, we were tied.

The continued to pound serves to open the third with little resistance. Sabalenka had a few 30 chances, but not much was being offered as the resilient Keys would not back down.

Match was going the way of their last Slam encounter which Keys famously let go up 6-0, 5-3 only to lose in a final set breaker. No breaker would happen tonight.

Serving second throughout, Sabalenka finally broke down. Keys missed the first championship point but on the second calmly cracked an inside-out forehand winner to seal the biggest moment of her career.

“If I wasn’t going to go for it, I knew she was going to. It really just pushed me to kind of thread the needle a little bit more. I just kept telling myself, ‘Be brave, go for it, just kind of lay it all out on the line.’ At that point, no matter what happens, if I do that, then I can be proud of myself. It just made it a little bit easier,” Keys said after.

Keys didn’t even play the Australian Open last year with injury, but this year had served some notice winning Adelaide. Yet there was little momentum that she would eventually lift the trophy.

“Even with the injuries and some tough losses, I just kind of felt like I was kind of starting to find myself a little bit more,” she said. “I was starting to be a little bit more clear-headed and present on court. I felt like I was starting to get better at problem-solving on court in the moment a lot better.

Keys capped what could be argued one of toughest gauntlets en route to a Slam title, beating both No. 1 and No. 2 (saving a match point vs Iga Swiatek), and also defeating two former finalists in Elena Rybakina and Danielle Collins plus a former No. 3 Elina Svitolina.

“There was a confidence in maybe not playing matches amazingly from start to finish and having some dips here and there,” she said. “But being able to kind of end on a really high note each time and figure out how to get back in matches or how to close out a match really well. I just slowly started continuing to build the confidence. I never really got ahead of myself in each round. I never once thought about the next round until I was actually there.”

Sabalenka had won 20 straight matches in Melbourne and 20 straight matches in hard court Slams. And she immediately slammed her racquets after the defeat.

“There definitely was a bit of frustration because I was so close to achieve something crazy,” Sabalenka said. “When you’re out there, you’re fighting, but it seems like everything is going not the way you really want it to go.

“It’s OK. I’m the one who knows that after tough losses, there is good wins. So I’ll keep working and make sure that next time, if I’ll be in this situation, I’ll play definitely better.”

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