American tennis star Madison Keys upset No. 1-ranked Aryna Sabalenka to win the Australian Open on Saturday.
Keys, 29, received 6-3, 2-6, 7-5 within the tightly contested match to win her first-ever Grand Slam event.
Keys completed with only one extra level received than Sabalenka general, successful 92 factors, in comparison with Sabalenka’s 91.
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Madison Keys, heart, of the U.S. reacts as she receives the Daphne Akhurst Memorial Cup from Evonne Goolagong Cawley after defeating Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus within the girls’s singles closing on the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, on Saturday, Jan. 25, 2025. (AP Photograph/Ng Han Guan)
Sabalenka was looking for to win her third consecutive Australian Open, one thing that was final achieved — by Martina Hingis — from 1997 by 1999.
This was the second time in Keys’ profession that she had an opportunity at a serious title, her final being a 6-3, 6-0 loss to fellow countrywoman Sloane Stephens within the 2017 US Open.
Keys had excessive expectations for herself in her tennis profession, however started to simply accept the truth that she would possibly by no means win a Grand Slam title.
“From a reasonably younger age, I felt like if I by no means received a Grand Slam, then I wouldn’t have lived as much as what individuals thought I ought to have been. That was a reasonably heavy burden to type of carry round,” Keys mentioned.
NOVAK DJOKOVIC BOOED AFTER RETIRING FROM AUSTRALIAN OPEN SEMIFINAL MATCH WITH INJURY
Madison Keys of the U.S. reacts throughout her girls’s singles closing match in opposition to Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus on the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Saturday, Jan. 25, 2025. (AP Photograph/Vincent Thian)
“So I lastly acquired to the purpose the place I used to be pleased with myself and pleased with my profession, with or and not using a Grand Slam. I lastly acquired to the purpose the place I used to be OK if it didn’t occur. I didn’t want it to really feel like I had profession or that I deserved to be talked about as an ideal tennis participant.
“I really feel like lastly letting go of that type of inside discuss that I had simply gave me the flexibility to really exit and play some actually good tennis to really win a Grand Slam.”
Not solely did Keys upset the No.1 ranked Sabalenka, however she additionally took down No. 2 ranked Iga Świątek within the semifinals en path to her Australian Open title victory.
Keys was the primary girl since Serena Williams in 2005 to defeat each of the WTA’s prime two gamers at Melbourne Park. She mentioned that beating Swiatek gave her the arrogance she may win in opposition to Sabalenka.
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Madison Keys of the U.S. speaks throughout a press convention after defeating Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus within the girls’s singles closing on the Australian Open tennis championship to win the Daphne Akhurst Memorial Cup, in Melbourne, Australia, Saturday, Jan. 25, 2025. (AP Photograph/Vincent Thian)
“Profitable that match the opposite night time in opposition to Iga was actually type of an enormous hurdle,” Keys mentioned. “I all the time believed that I may do it, however to do it that manner — actually I assumed to myself after the match that I can completely win on Saturday.”
This was Keys forty sixth Slam look, the third most earlier than successful a girls’s main title, being solely Flavia Pennetta’s 49 and Marion Bartoli’s 47 appearances earlier than they received.
“I didn’t all the time imagine that I may get again thus far. However to have the ability to do it and win, it means the world to me.”
The Related Press contributed to this report.
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