SYDNEY, January 23. /TASS/. US tennis player Madison Keys advanced to the final of the 2025 Australian Open on Thursday, a date with two-time defending champion Aryna Sabalenka up next for the upstart American.
In a match that lasted two hours and 35 minutes, the 19th-seeded Keys squeaked by 2nd-seeded Iga Swiatek from Poland, needing a third-set tiebreak to defeat her 5-7; 6-1; 7-6 (10-8).
"I’m in the finals," the US player said following her upset of World No. 2 Swiatek.
"That match was such high level, she played so well and I felt like I was trying to stay with it, then kind of ran through the second set and the third was just a battle," the tournament’s official website quoted Keys as saying.
"To be standing here and to be in the finals is absolutely amazing, and I’m so excited to be playing in the final on Saturday," she added.
The 29-year-old US player will take the court against Sabalenka, who has dropped just two sets in the last three years at the Australian Open, on Saturday, January 25.
At 26, Sabalenka is a budding star, having 18 WTA (the Women’s Tennis Association) titles under her belt, as well as three Grand Slams (2023, 2024 Australian Open, 2024 US Open).
Madison Keys is currently ranked 14th in the WTA Rankings. She has nine career WTA titles. In 2017, she lost in the final of the US Open, her deepest run in a Grand Slam event prior to today.
The 2025 Australian Open tournament is being played on hard courts at Melbourne Park on January 12-26 and has a purse of $59.7 million in prize money up for grabs. The season’s first Grand Slam, this year marks the 113th edition of the tournament. Italy’s Jannik Sinner and Belarus’ Aryna Sabalenka are the reigning Australian Open champions in men’s and women’s singles, respectively.