We know Aryna Sabalenka is gearing up for her third consecutive Australian Open title on Saturday. You are number one in the world and by far the best hard court player on the women’s tour.
But can we American tennis fans please let Madison Keys have this?
How she deserves it!
A few weeks after his 30th birthday, Keys played the biggest match of his life on Thursday morning in the United States (Thursday night in Australia), defeating second-ranked Iga Swiatek 5-7, 6-1, 7-6. He defeated them and advanced by 10 points. In the eighth-inning tiebreak, Keys appeared to be fighting from far behind until a late burst of energy brought him across the goal line.
It took an incredible amount of clutch tennis for Keys to pull this off. At 4-4 in the third set, she overcame a 40-0 deficit and ultimately had to save four break points. Then, after being broken at 5-5, Keys found a heavy forehand to save a match point and survive the service break to force a tiebreak.
There, Keys found himself trailing 3-1, 4-2, 5-3, 6-4, 7-5, 8-7, every moment of which could have been a backbreaker, but the final He grabbed the three points and shouted happily into his racket. Swiatek’s final forehand flew wide.
For American tennis fans who have followed Keys for years, it will be hard to believe that this match will go in her direction. The same may be true for Key.
She has a great career. He won nine WTA titles, stayed in the top 10 for long periods of time, and earned nearly $20 million. However, just as Keys was on the verge of making a major breakthrough in the Grand Slams, there were many heartbreaking moments.
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In her only one final appearance, at the 2017 U.S. Open, Keys couldn’t give it her all against her good friend Sloane Stephens, getting swept 6-3, 6-0 and leaving the court. Gone. All subsequent attempts to return to the majors were disappointing. Keys couldn’t seal the deal in a match like the 2023 U.S. Open, when she trailed Sabalenka 6-0, 5-3. The third set started from a 4-2 lead. A year ago, in the fourth round of Wimbledon, when everything seemed to be heading for a good run, Keys led 5-2 in the third round against eventual finalist Jasmine Paolini. I injured my foot and retired at 5-5.
At this stage in her career, there’s no need to quibble with the fact that Keys doesn’t have much time to put a Grand Slam in her trophy case. This might be her best shot yet.
And not only did she play to beat Swiatek, but the task ahead of her will become even more difficult.
All kidding aside, Sabalenka has no intention of giving up this title easily. For the third year in a row, she has been Australia’s best performer. This time around, Sabalenka has dropped just one set on the way to the final, fully adjusting to court speed, conditions, and what it takes to keep her massive baseline power game within the margins. It seems so.
In this head-to-head competition, Keys has won only one of the five meetings. It dates back to a match played on a grass court in Berlin in 2021.
So let’s be real. All data points to Sabalenka winning again. This is her fourth Grand Slam title, and she will compete to be the best player of the post-Serena Williams era.
At the same time, he turned pro at the age of 14 with high expectations and achieved a lot in the game, but perhaps not as much as everyone expected, and after many years and opportunities he finally reached the ultimate goal. There’s something irresistible about the whole career arc of getting paid. It has passed.
What a great story this is for Keyes. Keys was very good for a long time, but just wasn’t good enough to win these tournaments.
The effort she put in to defeat Swiatek on Thursday was strong, resilient, Grand Slam-winning tennis. It was a performance that Keyes and all of her American fans could be proud of.
Now she will have to do it again and again to avoid another heart-breaking near miss at a Grand Slam. The old Sabalenka might have allowed her to advance to the final. She was too wild, too emotionally unstable, too insecure to perform on that stage. But now, this is her comfort zone.
Therefore, the key has no other choice. After playing the biggest match of my life, I need to play tennis at that level again to win the Australian Open.
Follow USA TODAY sports columnist Dan Wolken on social media @DanWolken.