Mental scars in the past for Madison Keys after breakthrough major crown

If Madison Keys’s Australian Open victory could be summed up in one word, it would be ‘brave’.
Leading into the tournament, not many pundits had Keys making the final, even fewer winning it.
Yet, against world number one and heavy favourite Aryna Sabalenka, the 29-year-old American kept her composure and met power with fire. She stunned her opponent 6-3, 2-6, 7-5.
In an enthralling match, where two power-hitters with strong forehands and the strength to create lightning speed on the ball went toe-to-toe, Keys played some of her career-best tennis.
Against the two-time defending champion, she had to.
At one point in the first set, the ball was whacked across the net so fast in a rally you’d miss it if you blinked. Then Keys ever-so-delicately sliced it just over the net to the smile of Sabalenka, who usually looks either frustrated or focused during matches. Some of the crowd got on their feet. This was almost unbelievable tennis from the pair.
Fans shouldn’t have been surprised, this was the player who stunned world number two Iga Świątek in her previous match.
Leading into the tournament, much was said of the American’s heartbreaking loss to Sabalenka in the 2023 US Open semifinals.
At Flushing Meadows, Keys served for the match in the second set after taking the first 6-0 but fell in second- and third-set tiebreakers; the catalyst of mental scars that she herself said “took a little while to heal from and get past”.
Madison Keys won her first major title eight years after reaching her first final. (Getty Images: Cameron Spencer)
What hurt the most, she said, was that she didn’t go hard enough for the shots she knew she could hit.
“I didn’t want to be in the same situation where I kind of looked back at it and thought, ‘Man, I should have gone for it’,” Keys said.
“I didn’t want to have any regrets for not really laying it all out there.”
In her only other grand slam appearance, Keys, with her nerves in a muddle, lost the 2017 US Open to countrywoman Sloane Stephens in just 61 minutes.
Keys won just three games against Sloane Stephens in the 2017 US Open final. (Getty Images: Foto Olimpik)
After beating Sabalenka, Keys admitted she “wanted this for so long” and feared she would never get another chance.
Now she has put those demons to bed, for good.
When she took her position just behind the baseline to start the match against Sabalenka, she was the embodiment of ready. And against the fellow power-player, she came out firing.
Keys claimed the opening set in 35 minutes after breaking Sabalenka three times, including to start the match. The Belarusian double-faulted twice; first to open the evening, then again at break point.
Aryna Sabalenka was stunned by Madison Keys’s hot start. (Getty Images: Quinn Rooney)
Sabalenka finished the first set with four double faults to none and won just 43 per cent of her first serves, while Keys won 63 per cent of hers.
Then, the momentum swung in Sabalenka’s direction as she held her nerve, put her serving yips to bed and claimed the second set 6-2.
Keys hit her forehands at blistering pace, Sabalenka returned with speed. While it seemed Sabalenka would finish the cooler head of the two, Keys was the player to keep her nerve and close out the set, and match, with one final break to end it all.
For Sabalenka, the chance to become the first player to do the three-peat at Melbourne Park — the first since Martina Hingis from 1997-99 — evades her.
Much also was made of Sabalenka’s chance to write her name for the third time in a row on the champions’ wall, joining the only other players to claim three in a row: Margaret Court (1969-1971), Evonne Goolagong Cawley (1974-1976), Steffi Graf (1988-1990), Monica Seles (1991-1993) and Hingis.
Yet with the grit and determination she showed on court against Keys, there is little doubt she will be back.
Sabalenka’s dominance on hardcourts remains undeniable. She came into the match having won the previous two hardcourt grand slams, after claiming the 2024 US Open.
And now, with Keys the latest hardcourt champion, the ascendancy of the power game in women’s tennis continues to rise.
There’s a strong likelihood these two will meet again on a hardcourt soon.