At the 2015 Australian Open, 19-year-old American Madison Keys reached her first Grand Slam semi-final. She had beaten Venus Williams to get there, and would be denied an appearance in the finals by eventual champion Serena Williams.
On Thursday, a decade later, Keys, 29, fought her way to her first Australian Open final, beating world No. 2 Iga Swiatek with a combination of power and ruthlessness that Swiatek couldn’t defeat. Keys, seeded 19 and playing the best tennis of her life, overcame every challenge Swiatek threw at her and emerged with a thrilling 5-7, 6-1, 7-6(8) victory in two hours and 35 minutes .
Swiatek had been cruising through the tournament before facing Keys, dropping zero sets and losing a total of 14 games in five matches. But Keys challenged Swiatek with her power, smashing seven aces and 36 winners, never letting Swiatek get into a rhythm. Keys pushed Swiatek to the limit in the first set, giving Swiatek her first real challenge of the entire tournament. Once Swiatek won the set, it felt like she had finally taken control of the match.
Keys then absolutely dominated Swiatek in the second set. It’s rare to see Swiatek be almost non-competitive in any set against any player, but this was one of those times. Keys was relentless, blocking Swiatek at every opportunity, overwhelming her with the speed of her returns. He built a 5-0 lead over Swiatek in just 18 minutes and won the set in just 26 minutes.
After two impressive sets, the third ending in a winner-take-all tiebreaker was perfect. Keys and Swiatek fought for every point, but with an early 5-3 lead it looked like Swiatek would win easily. The keys, however, did not disappear. He chased Swiatek, not letting him get too far ahead, until he finally tied it 7-7. She hit her seventh ace of the match to tie Swiatek at 8-8, then won her 10th and final point thanks to an unforced error by Swiatek.
After meeting Swiatek at the net, Keys collapsed to the floor and cried, then sobbed into her towel. Saturday’s final match is only the second Grand Slam final of his career and the first in eight years.
Keys has never won a major and will struggle to overcome top seed Aryna Sabalenka, who defeated Paula Badosa 6-4, 6-2 in 86 minutes to reach the final. Sabalenka, seeking her third straight Australian Open trophy, also wields the power and, like Swiatek, has had a relatively easy path to the final. They have only lost one set in the six matches they have played before the final and have beaten the 27th, 14th and 11th seeds along the way. But if Keys can use her power wisely and play the kind of tennis she played on Thursday, she has a genuine chance to beat the reigning queen of Melbourne Park.
The tennis landscape has changed a lot in the 10 years since Keys lost her first Grand Slam semi-final in Melbourne. But in some ways it hasn’t changed at all. There is always a powerful enemy to defeat, whether it is Serena Williams or Sabalenka. But now, with a decade of tennis under her belt, we’ve seen that Keys has the ability to summon all her tools, both physical and mental, to challenge her opponent. In Saturday’s finale, she controls her own destiny.