Madison Keys has reflected “endlessly” on her nerve-riddled 2017 US Open final defeat to fellow American Sloane Stephens.
The one-time prodigy – hyped as a future world No.1 and Lindsay Davenport clone after winning her maiden WTA Tour match at age 14 – picked up only three games that night against Stephens, and had 10 times as many unforced errors.
Keys, who turns 30 next month, returns to that grand slam stage on Saturday night against dual defending champion and fellow ball-masher Aryna Sabalenka in the Australian Open final.
Madison Keys is through to the women’s final.Credit: Eddie Jim
Plenty happened in between, including her husband Bjorn Fratangelo becoming her coach, but most notable was her titanic 5-7, 6-1, 7-6 (10-8) upset of world No.2 Iga Swiatek in an engrossing contest on Thursday night.
Keys’ biggest lesson from that 2017 defeat was that it is OK to be “uncomfortable 99 per cent of the time”.
“I was so consumed with being nervous [about] the moment and the opportunity and all of that, that I never really gave myself a chance to actually play,” Keys said.
“The big thing for me has been knowing that there are going to be a lot of moments where I’m uncomfortable in the match. It’s going to be stressful. You have thousands of people watching you. You might not be playing your best tennis.
“But instead of trying to shy away from that … [I am trying to view it as] OK that that’s the situation, and you can also play tennis through that.”
Keys never lived up to the Davenport billing but has still enjoyed a very good career nonetheless. She peaked at No.7 in the rankings, spent parts of five different years inside the top 10, and has made the quarter-finals or better at every major.
To get to this point again, she committed to change.
Keys swapped her Wilson racquet for a Yonex – on Fratangelo’s advice – tweaked her service motion, and most importantly, promised to be bolder in the big moments.
That mindset paid dividends against Swiatek, including when facing a match point she did not remember afterwards, and helped her recover from an ill-advised drop shot that almost cost her victory.
“The big focus for me was really buying into, ‘I’ll try anything, I’ll do anything, I’ll be open’,” Keys said.
Her last grand slam semi-final before this week was against Sabalenka at the US Open about 16 months ago.
Keys has been honest about her past shortcomings.Credit: Eddie Jim
That match was reminiscent of the heartbreak the American has experienced in the late stages of majors. Keys breezed through the first set 6-0, and served for the match, only to lose each of the next two sets in tie-breaks.
“I felt like I’d really left it all out there. That’s really all you can ask. But at the end of the day, it’s still such a tough one to have to go home on,” she said.
“That one took a little while to heal from and get past, but I kept telling myself that if I keep putting in the work and doing my best and leaving it all out there, that’s the only thing that I can do and control.”
Keys is chasing her maiden grand slam title, while Sabalenka – who retained the world No.1 ranking when Swiatek lost – is bidding to become the first player since Martina Hingis 26 years ago to win the Open women’s singles title three years in a row.
Aryna Sabalenka is taking imposing form into the Australian Open women’s final.Credit: AP
The only other women to achieve that in Melbourne are Margaret Court (1969-71), Evonne Goolagong Cawley (1974-76), Steffi Graf (1988-90) and Monica Seles (1991-93).
“I have goosebumps [thinking about it]. I’m so proud of myself. I’m proud of my team – [that we were] able to put ourselves in such a situation,” Sabalenka said.
“It’s a privilege. If I’m able to put my name into history, it will mean a lot. It will mean the world to me. It’s been a dream. I mean, I couldn’t even dream about that, to be honest.
“First, I was dreaming to win at least one grand slam. Now, I have this opportunity. It’s incredible. I’m going to go out and leave everything I have in the final.”
Sabalenka is so accustomed to success in Australia that she feels like she is playing at her “home slam”. But she is wary of the challenge Keys poses.
“She’s playing incredible tennis. She’s a very aggressive player, serving well, moving well,” Sabalenka said.
“It’s going to be a great battle, and we had a lot of great battles in the past. I think at some moments [in our US Open semi-final], she was questioning herself. I saw that, and felt like, ‘OK, now is the moment to make sure that you put as many balls back as you can’. I think that was the crucial moment. I just turned things around.”
For Keys, this is the ultimate chance to show how much she really has changed.
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