Madison Keys’ Australian Open championship run was too good to be true, then it happened
Madison Keys’ Australian Open championship run was too good to be true
Madison Keys’ Grand Slam window wasn’t just closing. It had been slammed shut.
She has always been an excellent player, but it felt like women’s tennis had passed her by. Far from her peak in 2017, when she was ranked No. 7 in the world, Keys had been unable to break back into the elite tier. Today, it houses all-court terminators like Aryna Sabalenka and Iga Swaitek, prohibitively great, generational players. Along with Coco Gauff and Qinwen Zheng, the Women’s Tennis Association’s (WTA) had four unimpeachable stars, all with incredible foot-speed and shot making, all 26 years-old or younger.
Keys, about to turn 30, didn’t look like she had a way in. It seemed she would enter the twilight of her career without a Grand Slam to her name, known forever as an awesome player without that final trophy. At this year’s Australian Open, even with Keys in the semifinals, it was still a question of if Sabalenka or Swaitek would win it all. Her window was shut, bolted and boarded up.
But then, at 3:30 a.m. Eastern Time on January 25, Madison Keys brought a crowbar.
She accomplished a feat very few in tennis, or even individual sports in general, can boast: beating both the No. 1 and No. 2 players in the world, back to back, to win a Grand Slam. Beating one of Swiatek or Sabalenka in a major tournament is crazy enough. Beating both? In a row? To win it all? Are you kidding me?
Keys never was able to win at the highest level, but that wasn’t because she wasn’t a modern player. Standing 5 feet, 10 inches, her serve is ferocious, as is her standing forehand. What she gave up to quicker, all-court players, she made up for in firepower and counterpunching. And that’s nothing new.
“All she did was try to hit balls into the next yard — home runs,” Rick Keys, Madison’s father, said to the New York Times in 2018, referring to her childhood ball-striking power.
The issue has been consistency, and a never-ending stream of genius-level players above her. If it wasn’t Williams, it was Naomi Osaka, who played Keys’ own style to perfection in her prime. But as soon as Osaka had faded from the scene, Swiatek arrived and began destroying everyone with her picturesque tennis that looks like a computer simulation of what exactly to do in every situation.
But even with Serena Williams’ dominance, the last 10 years of women’s tennis has seen several breaks in which players of Keys’ caliber managed to win a Grand Slam. Bianca Andreescu, Ashleigh Barty, Jelena Ostapenko; none of them were generation-defining greats, but they were excellent players who all earned their capstone in the lull between Williams, Osaka, and Swiatek’s respective eras.
Keys just never could do it, and be it for badly-timed injuries, bad draws or simply bad luck on a backhand down the line, she still lacked that Grand Slam. And it looked like it was going to stay that way. But sometimes, to change your fate, you can’t keep chipping away at the same block. You have to bring some dynamite.
Keys had a brutal draw in this year’s Australian Open, and she shrugged her shoulders and locked in. She beat, in order, Danielle Collins (No. 10), Elena Rybakina (No. 6), Elina Svitolina (No. 28, formerly ranked No. 3 in the world), Iga Swiatek (No. 2) and Aryana Sabalenka (No. 1). That is four top-10 seeds, a former top-3 player, and the No. 1 and 2 ranked players in the world, all in a row. Like, hello.
That is one of the great runs to win a Grand Slam in the history of tennis. Not because it was the biggest upset, but because Keys changed her destiny with extreme prejudice, showing that her 30th birthday won’t be the death throes of her career; rather, it will be a celebration and maybe even a new beginning.
It is also maybe the mark of a change in American women’s tennis. There is a mantle of the best American player, left vacant by Williams after her legendary career entered its farewell tour around 2020. But no one has taken it. Sofia Kenin captured the 2020 Australian Open, but never followed it up. Coco Gauff, ranked No. 3 in the world, has still only won the single US Open despite her consistency, and doesn’t look any closer to cracking Swiatek, against whom she is 3-11 all time.
Maybe Keys can help American tennis out, even if this is her only Grand Slam. She brought a blaze of tennis awesomeness that might just light this popsicle stand and inspire both today’s generation of American women and the next. She showed that no set of players is unbeatable, no matter how intimidating or perfect. And she did it all by herself, without any expectations, as we had all wrongly given up on her. Personally, I’ll try not to make that mistake again.