Relive how Madison Keys won the Australian Open
MELBOURNE, Australia — Madison Keys beat Aryna Sabalenka 6-3, 2-6, 7-5 in the Australian Open final at Melbourne Park Saturday.
The No. 19 seed prevailed over the No. 2 seed in a fast-paced match, ultimately decided by Keys’ incredible serving in the first set, an off-speed battle and a stunning final set in which both players raised their level under pressure.
It is Keys’ first Grand Slam title, ending Sabalenka’s run of two consecutive Australian Open wins.
The Athletic’s tennis writers, Charlie Eccleshare and Matt Futterman, analyze the final and what it means for tennis.
How Madison Keys did what Aryna Sabalenka’s previous opponents could not
Sabalenka’s serve had been shaky throughout the Australian Open. She was broken 16 times in six matches before the final, losing her serve four times in a row against Danish world No. 42 Clara Tauson. She managed to get away with it in the earlier rounds because her opponents could not reliably consolidate behind their own serves, but the big-serving Keys was not so generous.
Sabalenka once again looked uncomfortable, but this time she wasn’t able to compensate by feasting on her opponent’s own discomfort.
She hit a double fault on the first point of the match, and another a few points later to gift Keys an instant break. Sabalenka never settled into any sort of serving rhythm in the first set, hitting four double faults in total and winning 43 percent of her first-serve points against an average of 68 percent in her first six matches.
Keys’ returning was a big factor, with her speed and accuracy rattling Sabalenka. Keys talked pre-match about how she wanted to emulate her opponent’s conviction in going for her shots, and she absolutely did that in the opening stages.
She also served brilliantly herself, in a way that even big-serving opponents like Tauson failed to do earlier in the tournament. Keys landed 86 percent of her first serves in the opening set, and even when she missed, she won a very healthy 67 percent of her second-serve points.
Madison Keys’ first-set serving helped her take advantage of Aryna Sabalenka’s loose moments. (Hannah Peters / Getty Images)
Things changed significantly in the second set. Keys’ second-serve points won percentage plunged from 67 (from a sample size of only three points) to 47, from a much larger sample of 13. Sabalenka broke in two of her first three return games of the set and had break points in the other. The joy she was finding on the Keys serve coincided with, or likely contributed to, the greater comfort Sabalenka was finding on her own serve. She upped her first-serve percentage to 83 per cent from 64 in the opening set, and won a much more healthy 68 percent of those points.
Both players locked down their serves in the decider, with no break points until the final game of the match. Keys took her second to claim the title.
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How two huge hitters engaged in an off-speed battle
Grand Slam finals can be nervy affairs. The trophy sitting in the corner of the court. Tons of adrenaline pumping through the veins. That can be a nightmare for big hitters like Sabalenka and Keys.
So maybe it makes sense that both players came onto the court prepared to take some speed off the ball, especially the American. Through the first set, Keys played against type. Just when it looked like she might pound a groundstroke like she has done since she was 10, she threw in a changeup.
The two best examples came midway through the first set, as she pushed to try to get a second break of serve. Sabalenka moved into the court behind a hard forehand. Keys ran to her right, but instead of trying to lace a forehand down the line, she scraped at the ball, slicing it low. Sabalenka couldn’t get the half-volley off her shoelaces and over the net. In the next game, Keys cut a slick backhand dropshot from inside the court.
Aryna Sabalenka used changes of speed to throw Keys off when she was serving for the first set. (Graham Denholm / Getty Images)
On Sabalenka’s side, she quickly saw that Keys was struggling to put away soft balls as she came in. She has worked intensely the past year to add variety to her game, and the softer strokes she can throw in are a part of that. Down 5-2, she patted balls into the court and asked Keys to hit them back without missing. It worked exactly as she intended, but through the first 35 minutes, the rest of her game was too shaky and error-strewn for Keys’ misses to make much of a difference to the set.
That all started to change in the second set, as Keys began to cool off and Sabalenka heated up. Still, the three shots that felt like the biggest daggers were all drops, especially two in the seventh game with Keys threatening to claw her way back into the set. Sabalenka kept seeing Keys backpedaling ready for a ripped forehand. Sabalenka cut two perfect feathers, one of them off a slow ball on break point, and placed them just beyond the net.
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How Madison Keys met the moment…
Keys would be the first to to say that eight years ago, in her only other Grand Slam final, she didn’t meet the moment.
She came out tight against Sloane Stephens in the U.S. Open final and never got her teeth into the match, losing in straight sets. She’s regretted it ever since, especially when she lost repeatedly in Grand Slam semifinals. Getting another shot at it seemed to be slipping further away.
As the third set wore on, it became clear that win or lose Keys was not going to leave Rod Laver Arena with any regrets on that scale. She climbed out of a 0-30 hole at 3-3 in the seventh game with winners off the forehand and the backhand. She nailed big serves at 4-4 when she needed them.
For her part, Sabalenka came through with the pressure on as well. The third set, especially the second half of it, had both players finally playing top-level tennis at the same time. Sabalenka returned to being the player that has won three Grand Slams and became the world No. 1, jumping on returns and pounding plus-one strokes on her serve.
But 5-6 down, Sabalenka let Keys in with two misses. Fittingly, she won the match and her first major not on an error but a winner, curving an inside-out forehand past Sabalenka to send the stadium into raptures.
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…And what that moment was
At 5-5, 30-30, Keys was two points away from giving up the break that would have left Sabalenka serving for a third Australian Open title.
The two-time defending champion sensed that this was the moment to pounce, and ripped a return back at her opponent’s forehand.
Keys met fire with fire, staying low and barely moving her racket to bullet a forehand up the line that flew past a disbelieving Sabalenka. She followed it up with another forehand winner off a return, this time crosscourt, and as they walked to the change of ends the pressure swung back Sabalenka’s way.
Keys rode the momentum into the next game, fizzing away a backhand winner and then drawing an error into the net from Sabalenka to bring up two match points. A stunning backhand return then set up the chance for Keys to wrap up the match with that forehand into the corner.
Madison Keys kept her courage on her groundstrokes throughout, even under severe pressure. (Yuichi Yamazaki / AFP via Getty Images)
From being on the brink of defeat a few minutes earlier, Keys was weeping with joy as a Grand Slam champion. She did it exactly as she knew she would have to: by having complete conviction in herself in the biggest moments.
What did Madison Keys say after the final?
“I’m absolutely going to cry,” Keys said when she stepped onto the podium.
“I have wanted this for so long … And I didn’t know if I was ever going to get back to this position,” Keys said through tears of joy on court.
“I am so appreciative to every single person who helped me to believe in myself,” she said.
What did Aryna Sabalenka say after the final?
On-court, Sabalenka told Keys to enjoy the “fun part,” before jokingly telling her team that the defeat was “all their fault.”
“Next time I play Madison, I will bring better tennis,” Sabalenka said, having told the Daphne Akhurst trophy that she hoped to “see it next year.”
In her news conference, Sabalenka said: “In the third set, the real tennis match started.”
“I was so close to achieving something crazy, and when you’re out there, you’re fighting but it seems like everything is going not the way you want it to go… I needed to throw these negative emotions at the end. I was just trying to let it go.
“After tough losses there is good wins,” she said.
“The depths of the balls were crazy,” Sabalenka said of Keys’ tennis.
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(Top photo: Fred Lee / AFP via Getty Images)
