MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Be brave.
go for it.
They were spells Madison Keys He leaned in as he faced the most important points of his tennis career, stuck in a third-set stalemate that closed at 5-all, 30. Australian Open Saturday’s final against two-time defending champion Aryna Sabalenka.
Keys figured there was no reason to be anything but aggressive now. No reason to try wishing there weren’t nerves There’s no reason to bother with the moment – as American Long traveled from prodigy to major champion at age 12 less than a month before his 30th birthday – if things don’t quite work out. What will happen if you do?
“I just kept saying, ‘Be brave.’ And, ‘Go for it.’ I kind of kept repeating it. That was really my goal for the day – just to be proud, no matter a win or a loss. – 5 wins over No. 1 ranked Sabalenka at Rod Laver Arena.
“I’m behind it, every single point. And if I missed it and I didn’t act now, I could live with it. I didn’t want to have any regrets that I was inactive and I miss. (Then) it could have been something where I thought: ‘I should have done something else,'” Keys said, his hands shaking as he recalled what happened about two hours earlier. “So. I just kind of kept saying it.”
He spread the credit for his success. In the team around her, including a former player, Bourne Fratangelo, who has been her partner for years, her coach since mid-2023 and her husband since November. to his physicianwith whom she has spoken or texted frequently in the past two weeks. For his friends on tour who picked him up when he needed it.
They all believe in keys, he said, and now, lately, they believe in themselves.
In the post-match news conference, Keys discussed at length the ways in which his perspective had changed.
She was never concerned about living up to the hype that accompanied her even before she was a teenager and only grew when she won a Grand Slam semi at Melbourne Park at the age of 19. Made her first final appearance (she lost to Serena Williams). She thought nothing of her tennis career if she never managed to claim a major trophy. She assumed that the sport’s best had never felt a shock like the one that hindered her during her first Grand Slam final at the US Open at the age of 22 (( She lost to Sloane Stephens )
Finally, the keys let them all go. It was okay not to obsess over the opinions of others. It was okay if he never won a Slam. It was okay to have nerves, because, after all, that’s how greats succeed — they feel the pain but play through it.
“I was nervous throughout my career. So is Novak (Djokovic). So was Roger (Federer). “It just deals with you,” one former player, who accepted his trophy with red eyes, said during the tournament. . And she’s starting to deal with it better.
That was the case during that, including five three-sets and four victories over top 10 seeds (No. 1 Sabalenka, No. 2 Iga Svitak, No. 6 Elena Rybkina and No. 10). Daniel Collins ), including a trio of major champs (Sabalenka, Switek, Rybkina). No woman had beaten the top two players in the WTA rankings during a major since 2009.
Switek used the word “brave.” To describe how keys are played while saving a match point before their final set comes down to a tiebreaker.
“To do that,” Keys said at his news conference, “I think, really, I thought to myself after the match that I could absolutely win on Saturday.” “
She was very good at the start and pulling against Sabalenka.
5-all, the Keys claimed six of the last eight points. He hammered first-strike winners on consecutive points to hold serve, then earned the lone break of the third set, and closed it out—fittingly—with another forehand winner.
“If she can play like that consistently, I mean, it’s not much you have,” Sabalenka said.
Keys was brave.
She went for it.
“My first semi-final here feels like it’s been forever. I mean, I honestly feel like I’m a different person now. But I think that’s what happens when a lot of the last decade goes on. All the things happened,” Keyes told the AP. “It’s just kind of like getting to the point where I can finally go out and play some really good tennis and walk away with a grand slam.”
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Howard Fendrich has been an AP Tennis writer since 2002. Find their stories here: https://apnews.com/author/howard-fendrich. More AP Tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis
