Madison Keys is proof that good issues occur to good folks.
The veteran American shocked the tennis world Saturday by defeating World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka to seize the 2025 Australian Open title, ending a 13-year watch for an elusive grand slam.
The win got here lower than 48 hours after she saved a match point to complete an improbable victory over World No. 2 Iga Swiatek within the semifinal. The 29-year-old Keys has grow to be the oldest participant since 1975 to defeat the highest two seeds at a Grand Slam en path to the title. She’s additionally the primary to beat the highest two seeds at a significant since 2009.
Essentially the most spectacular facet of Keys’ Cinderella-like run is that she defeated the perfect the tennis world needed to provide. Traditionally, many dark-horse slam winners benefitted from prime seeds being ousted within the earlier rounds — Barbora Krejcikova’s 2024 Wimbledon win and Emma Raducanu’s 2023 U.S. Open victory being latest examples.
In Keys’ case, she went by means of a gauntlet of top-ranked gamers, ousting No. 6 Elena Rybakina and No. 10 Danielle Collins earlier than knocking off Swiatek and Sabalenka. As she obtained deeper into the draw, Keys reiterated she was residing within the second and never pondering too far forward. The standard Keys was keen to depart with her “head held high” as long as she left all of it out on the court docket in pursuit of her first main.
After her career-defining second on Saturday, Keys echoed a lot of these sentiments, noting that she stunned herself together with her unimaginable run at Melbourne Park after considering retirement in 2024.
“I’ve been in a single different Grand Slam ultimate [2017 U.S. Open] and it didn’t go my means,” an emotional Keys stated on the podium. “I did not know if I used to be ever going to have the ability to get again to this place to attempt to win a trophy once more and my workforce believed in me each step of the best way. They believed in me once I did not imagine in myself.”
Keys is ready to climb to a career-high World No. 7 on Monday, per WTA. She beforehand held that rating for 3 weeks in October 2016.
