MADI’S MOMENT ✨#AO2025 pic.twitter.com/7iTPsOn2GA
— #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) January 23, 2025
Top seed and two-time defending champion Aryna Sabalenka will play 19th seed Madison Keys for the 2025 Australian Open singles championship, but those two will have to bring extra bags of tricks and a Broadway-level layer of drama to top what happened in the semifinal that Keys played against 2nd seed Iga Swiatek.
Keys has always been a hard hitter, capable of hanging in with the best of the power hitters. But she has not always been able to go that little extra stretch, blending spontaneous creativity and nerves of steel to overcome elite players. The Keys who arrived in Melbourne, however, is another story. The 2017 U.S. Open runner-up had a tough draw, and had to take out three seeds, all of whom play very well on hard courts.
The 19th seed made it difficult for Swiatek in the first set, which the Polish star won, 7-5. She took her momentum into the next set, in which Swiatek won only one game. It was the third set, however, that will be remembered when this tournament has come and gone. Swiatek performed magic tricks (apparently, this is a Polish tradition), while Keys covered the court superbly and placed her opponent in awkward positions. Keys had another advantage in this set--a first serve win percentage of 75, while Swiatek struggled with her serve, and won with only 38% of her first serves.
Serving at 6-5, Swiatek nevertheless held a match point, which Keys saved. Keys broke Swiatek to force a tiebreak, and that looked to be going the 2nd seed's way; she had leads at 7-5 and 8-7. But Keys would have none of it, and won the tiebreak 10-8. During the post-match interview, Keys couldn't recall saving a match point. "I feel like I blacked out at some point and was just running around," she said.
It's Madison time!
In the other semifinal, best friends faced off, as Sabalenka played former world number 2 Paula Badosa. Badosa, who considered retiring last year because of her chronic back problems, had an exceptional run in Melbourne, upsetting 3rd seed Coco Gauff in the quarterfinals. But she was stopped, not surprisingly, by the world number 1, 6-4, 6-2, in the semifinals.
Paths to the final:
ARYNA SABALENKA
round 1--d. Sloane Stephens
round 2--d. Jessica Bouzas Maneiro
round 3--d. Clara Tauson
round of 16--d. Mirra Andreeva (14)
quarterfinals--d. Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (27)
semifinals--d. Paula Badosa (11)
MADISON KEYS
round 1--d. Ann Li
round 2--d. Elena-Gabriela Ruse
round 3--d. Danielle Collins (10)
round of 16--d. Elena Rybakina (6)
quarterfinals--d. Elina Svitolina (28)
semifinals--d. Iga Swiatek (2)
On another note, many fans probably missed what had to be the comeback of this event: In wheelchair singles, 2nd seed Aniek Van Koot, down 1-6, 2-5 and facing a match point, found a way to defeat 3rd seed Wang Ziying 1-6, 7-6, 6-1. She will face top seed Yui Kamiji in the final.
1️⃣2️⃣ years after her first Grand Slam singles title Down Under, Aniek Van Koot is back in an Australian Open wheelchair singles final 👏#AusOpen • #AO2025
— #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) January 23, 2025
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