No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka will go for her third straight women’s singles title at the 2025 Australian Open at Melbourne Park on Saturday. Mandatory Credit: Mike Frey-Imagn Images American Madison Keys shocked No. 2 seed IGA Swiatek to crash the Australian Open Women’s Final, where top seed, two-time defending champion Aryna Sabalenka awaits on Saturday.
The Keys dropped the opening set 7-5 before reeling off 6-1 and 7-6 (8) victories to eliminate the five-time major champion in the semifinals Thursday in Melbourne.
The No. 19 seed reached the final of a grand slam for the first time since finishing runner-up at the 2017 US Open to Sloane Stephens.
Swiatek held serve and a 6-5 advantage in the third set. Instead, a double fault opened the door for keys in a tiebreak. She held on in the first to 10 sudden-death decision despite trailing 8-7 to take three points to reach the final at Rod Laver Arena.
Keys, 29, said in her post-match on-court interview that she felt like she was “disappearing” and had to ask if Swiatek had a match point.
“Yeah. I’m still trying to catch up with everything that’s going on. I’m in the finals. Wooo!” she said. “I feel like I disappeared. At one point I was just out running around.”
Next up for Keys is a monumental challenge against the most dominant player in this tournament field.
Sabalenka is 3-1 all-time against keys, most recently with a three-set victory in the semifinals of the 2023 US Open.
Belarus’ reigning champion can claim her third Australian Open title in a row if she clears the keys on Saturday. Sabalenka defeated 11th seed Paula Badosa of Spain 6-4 6-2 in straight sets, leaving her Spanish counterpart and good friend in awe. Sabalenka had only dropped 14 games in her first five matches.
“She played the best match, not even this week, from the last few months for sure. So if she plays like this, I mean we can give her the trophy already,” Badosa said of Sabalenka.
Badosa raced to a 3-0 advantage in the first set before Sabalenka, the first woman to reach three consecutive finals at Melbourne Park since Serena Williams in 2017, found her groove.
“Somehow I was able to turn the game around in the deciding game,” Sabalenka said. “It was a super tough match against a friend, super happy for her, to see her at her highest level.
“I’m sure she’ll hate me for the next day or two, I’m okay with that, I can handle it. And after that, I think we’ll be back to being friends, back to going out shopping together. I promise, Paula, we’ll shop and I’ll pay for what she wants.”
Said Badosa, facing the media moments later, “It’s going to be something really expensive.”
-Field level media
