Madison Keys won her maiden Grand Slam title at the Australian Open after ending the 20-match winning streak of Aryna Sabalenka.
Keys made history by beating Sabalenka in three sets, in what was only her second Grand Slam final after finishing runner-up at the 2017 US Open to Sloane Stephens.
After previously losing a close match against Sabalenka, some were worried for Keys in the closing moments of the deciding set.
While the American was overcome with positivity, her opponent Sabalenka was extremely frustrated and took it out on her racquet following championship point.
Despite the disappointment, Keys and Sabalenka praised each other after the match in the on-court ceremony.
Keys has now offered advice to Alexander Zverev, who is also seeking his first major title in the men’s singles Australian Open final against Jannik Sinner.
Serena Williams says what Madison Keys has proven after winning the Australian Open
This final has provoked a huge reaction from across the sporting world, with Coco Gauff one of many to congratulate Keys on her victory.
Someone who knows a thing or two about winning Grand Slam titles is Serena Williams, having won the Australian Open a record seven times.
When speaking to fans on an Instagram live, Williams congratulated Keys on her Australian Open win and commented on the sacrifices that her compatriot has had to make.
“I just saw Madison Keys, congrats to her winning the Australian Open today,” said Williams. “She is an amazing player. I got to play her a lot. Now she has just won the Australian Open, she is so awesome.
“But also something I was thinking about was that she invested in herself, she invested in her career and time into tennis and being the best she can be. Today she proved she is one of the best in the world.”
In the post-match press conferences, the 23-time Grand Slam champion was actually mentioned after Sabalenka suggested that Keys hits harder than Williams.
Madison Keys speaks about the pressure of trying to become a Grand Slam champion
Keys was backed to achieve big things from an early age, having won her first WTA Tour level match at just 14-years-old.
However, until this year’s Australian Open she had been unable to cross the line after reaching one major final and five semi-finals.
When speaking to press after the match, Keys admitted that she was told she could win a Grand Slam title from the age of 11 and found that a difficult burden to live with.
“I mean, it definitely started pretty young. Probably 11, 12, something like that,” responded Keys when asked about being first told she could win a Grand Slam. “It obviously was meant to be confidence-building and all of that.
“I think as I got older and I had gotten close and it didn’t happen, and then it’s you’re getting older, you’re obviously in the later stages of your career, it kind of feels like, Will this ever actually happen? If it doesn’t happen, I didn’t live up to what everyone told me I should have done.
“So I think it kind of almost felt like it went from being something positive to something that was almost, like, a little bit of a panic of, Why hasn’t it happened yet? Why haven’t I been able to do it?
“It really started to kind of weigh on me more where it was, What if I never do it? If I don’t do it, am I considered a failure? There was a lot of stuff that I had to, like, work through personally just with all of that just because of all of the pressure I was putting on myself with that.”
Keys has now overcome those obstacles, and as a result will be ranked as world number seven following the conclusion of the Australian Open.
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