Mats Wilander agrees with what John McEnroe and Jim Courier have both said about Madison Keys as she reaches the Australian Open semi-final

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Madison Keys has set up a semi-final meeting with Iga Swiatek after beating Elina Svitolina at the Australian Open.

Keys has been on the WTA Tour since 2009 when she was just 14-years-old, and reached her first Grand Slam semi-final just six years later at the Australian Open.

At 29-years-old in 2025, Keys is still trying to adapt her game and it appears to be working after coming from a set down to beat Svitolina.

Keys won her ninth career title in Adelaide, and has continued that winning feeling all the way to the Australian Open semi-finals.

Mats Wilander agrees with John McEnroe and Jim Courier about Madison Keys

It will be the world number two next for Keys, with Swiatek controversially beating Emma Navarro in her Australian Open quarter-final.

Earlier on in the tournament, Jim Courier praised Madison Keys’ game and has backed her as one of the better players to not win a Grand Slam title.

While Mats Wilander has been critical of Keys at times, the former world number one agrees with Courier as he previewed the upcoming semi-final with Swiatek.

“It’s quite a big step up, especially the way Iga is playing and the way she is not giving away any games,” Wilander said on Eurosport. “She looks like she is playing a bit more aggressively than normally but, on the other hand, Iga hasn’t played against a big ball striker like a Madison Keys and that is what we think Iga struggles with a bit – it is against Sabalenka and Rybakina and if Maddie Keys is playing this way then she basically has the perfect game to hurt Iga on the first hard court. I don’t think [she will be intimidated].

“She is coming in with so much confidence now, and there is no pressure on her to win this match. She has been here before, she has been in the final of the US Open and the semis here a few years back, so I am really looking forward to it. I always though Madison Keys – Johnny Mac [John McEnroe] said that she is one of the best players to have not won a major I believe and so did Jim Courier – and it’s pretty close to that for me too.”

Madison Keys’ Grand Slam record

This will be Keys’ third time in an Australian Open semi-final, and her seventh time in the last four of a major tournament.

However, the American has only won one of her six previous semi-finals, at the 2017 US Open, before being beaten in the final by compatriot Sloane Stephens.

The most recent Grand Slam semi-final for Keys was a heartbreaker, having led Aryna Sabalenka by a break in both the second and third set.

Keys will look to improve her major semi-final record when she plays Swiatek in the second night session match on Rod Laver Arena, with the match taking place on Thursday January 23.