As Madison Keys stared down a match point in the final set of one of the most extraordinary matches of her career, she had ample reason to slump her shoulders and lament the crushing defeat that seemed to be imminent.
From a set down, Keys had rallied brilliantly, dragging herself back into contention with some of the most destructive, daring shotmaking exhibited all tournament. In the breathless final set that followed, when she was so often close to losing, the 19th seed continually found the courage and heart to force her way back into the match.
One point from defeat, Keys continued to swing with total conviction and took control through the force of her own groundstrokes and self-belief. In a frantic, quality tussle that lasted until the early hours of Friday morning, she gave a brilliant demonstration of her mental toughness and resilience by recovering to close out the No 2 seed, Iga Swiatek, 5-7, 6-1, 7-6 (8) and reach her first final here.
Keys will contest her second grand slam final against Aryna Sabalenka, the two-time defending champion and No 1 seed. The 29-year-old’s other grand slam final came at the US Open in 2017, when she lost to her friend Sloane Stephens.
Having triumphed at the Adelaide Open in the week before the Australian Open, Keys is now on an 11-match winning streak. Swiatek’s defeat means Sabalenka will hold on to her No 1 ranking after the tournament.
Keys said her last grand slam semi-final, a heartbreaking loss in a final set tie-break to Sabalenka at the 2023 US Open, played a significant role in the determination and aggressive mentality she exhibited throughout this match.
She said: “I didn’t want to be in the same situation where I looked back at it and thought: ‘Man, I should have gone for it.’ I didn’t want to have any regrets for not really laying it all out there.”
Despite coming so close to her first Australian Open final and a first major final against her closest rival, Sabalenka, Swiatek took a painful defeat in her stride.
“It’s disappointing when it [converting opportunities] doesn’t happen, but this is sport, so it’s not always going to go my way,” she said.
“Madison really did the work as she should. She totally deserves to be in the final.”
Although the pair had started in cool, windy evening conditions, drizzling rain forced the organisers to close the roof. Keys struggled in the opening set, but with the elements no longer a factor she gradually found a rhythm with her destructive groundstrokes.
By the second set, Keys was completely eviscerating the ball, serving brilliantly and striking winners from all parts of the court. Swiatek not only watched the ball constantly fly past her, she struggled to absorb and redirect the immense pace on her opponent’s groundstrokes.
A dramatic, tumultuous final set followed as both players generated chances to break serve before the other bravely fought back. In Keys’s case, each time she fell behind, she trusted herself to take back control by pounding forehands and taking the initiative.
After Swiatek finally snatched the first break of the set and served for the match at 6-5, she reached match point at 40-30 on her serve.
Keys pounded a deep forehand return off the first serve, forcing a backhand error from Swiatek, which she followed up by a supreme point-ending backhand return off another first serve. Under pressure from Keys’s imperious returning, Swiatek double-faulted on break point to relinquish the game.
Keys said she had forgotten she had been a point from defeat: “I kept telling myself, ‘Just try to get the next point’. Especially at the end of the match, I was just so focused on what I wanted to try to do.”
Throughout the match tie-break that followed at 6-6, the American continued to take the initiative and dictate on her own terms right until she emerged with a special win that will offer her another chance to claim the grand slam title that has eluded her for 16 years.
