Australian Open: Madison Keys finally breaks through, upsets two-time champion Aryna Sabalenka for first Grand Slam title

MELBOURNE, Australia — When Madison Keys stepped into Rod Laver Arena at 7:37 p.m. on Saturday night ahead of the Australian Open final, she strode right past the Daphne Akhurst Memorial Cup, the trophy that goes to the women's champion and was placed on a pedestal near the entrance to the court. Keys didn't break stride. Didn't stop to stare. That bit of hardware then was placed near the net for the pre-match coin toss, close as can be to where the American stood. Close enough to touch. Close enough to feel real. Also right there was her opponent, No. 1-ranked Aryna Sabalenka, the two-time defending champion at Melbourne Park, who would not make things easy on this cool, breezy evening. Exactly 2 1/2 hours — and one 6-3, 2-6, 7-5 victory over Sabalenka — later, there was Keys, smiling the widest smile while holding that silver trophy with both hands, a Grand Slam champion for the first time at age 29. Keys was considered a future star before she was a teen, and this was her second chance to play for a major title: The first ended in a lopsided loss at the 2017 U.S. Open, an experience that taught her she would need to be able to play through nerves. It was only after accepting she might never capture a Slam title, and would be fine with that — a change that came after years of therapy — that Keys actually got there. "From a pretty young age, I felt like if I never won a Grand Slam, then I wouldn't have lived up to what people thought I should have been. That was a pretty heavy burden to kind of carry around," said Keys, who reached her first major semifinal a decade ago in Australia. "So I finally got to the point where I was proud of myself and proud of my career, with or without a Grand Slam. I finally got to the point where I was OK if it didn't happen. I didn't need it to feel like I had a good career or that I deserved to be talked about as a great tennis player. I feel like finally letting go of that kind of internal talk that I had just gave me the ability to actually go out and play some really good tennis to actually win a Grand Slam." Sure did. Keys, born in Illinois and now based in Florida, is the oldest woman to become a first-time Slam champ since Flavia Pennetta, who was 33 at the 2015 U.S. Open. This was the 46th Slam appearance for Keys, the third most before winning a women's major title, behind only Pennetta's 49 and Marion Bartoli's 47 when she won Wimbledon in 2013. Keys didn't take an easy path, either. Before this three-set victory came one against No. 2 Iga Swiatek in the semifinals, saving a match point along the way. Not since Serena Williams in 2005 had a player defeated the WTA's top two women at Melbourne Park. "Winning that match the other night against Iga was really kind of a big hurdle," Keys said. "I always believed that I could do it, but to do it that way — really I thought to myself after the match that I can absolutely win on Saturday." To do that, though, Keys, who is ranked 14th and seeded 19th, needed to prevent Sabalenka from earning what would have been her third women's trophy in a row at the Australian Open — something last accomplished by Martina Hingis from 1997-99 — and her fourth major title overall. When it ended, Keys covered her face with her hands, then raised her arms. Soon, she was hugging her husband, Bjorn Fratangelo — who has been her coach since 2023 — and other members of her team, before sitting on her sideline bench and laughing. Sabalenka chucked her racket, covered her head with a white towel and briefly left the court, before returning for the post-match ceremony. "I just needed ... that time for myself to kind of switch off and forget and ... be respectful," Sabalenka explained later. Keys broke three times in the first set, helped in part by Sabalenka's four double-faults and 13 total unforced errors. But don't think this was merely an instance of Sabalenka being her own undoing. Keys had a lot to do with the way things were going. For a stretch, it seemed as though every shot off the strings of Keys' racket — the one she switched to ahead of this season, at Fratangelo's urging, to protect her oft-injured right shoulder and to make it easier to control her considerable power — was landing precisely where she wanted. Near a corner. On a line. Out of the reach of Sabalenka, a 26-year-old from Belarus. Also important was the way Keys, whose left thigh was taped for the match, covered every part of the court, racing to get to balls and send them back over the net with intent. Never one to hide her emotions, Sabalenka kicked a ball after netting a volley and dropped her racket after missing an overhead. She went to the locker room before the second set, and whether that helped clear her head or slowed Keys' momentum — or both — the final's complexion soon changed. Keys' first-serve percentage dipped from 86 percent in the first set to 59 percent in the second. Sabalenka raised her winner total from four in the first set to 13 in the second and began accumulating, and converting, break points. When she sent a backhand down the line to force an error by Keys for a break and a 2-1 lead in the second, Sabalenka shook her left fist and gritted her teeth. The action in the third set was tight and tense, without so much as a single break point until its final game, when Keys came through with one last forehand winner. Here's how close this was: Keys won just one more point than Sabalenka, 92-91. Both finished with 29 winners. Keys had to wait for this moment, yes, but it did arrive. "I didn't always believe that I could get back to this point," she said after sipping Champagne at her news conference. "But to be able to do it and win, it means the world to me."