Madison Keys and Aryna Sabalenka played out a thrilling Australian Open final last month, with the former emerging victorious.
Andy Roddick labelled Keys ‘humble’ in the aftermath of her win, as she stopped Sabalenka from a third successive Australian Open title.
Keys now has 10 WTA titles to her name at the age of 29, but her most recent success represents her first Grand Slam title.
Australian Open victor Keys may inspire other Americans to Grand Slam glory this season, with the French Open up next.
Just like Sabalenka in Melbourne, it is an event that Iga Swiatek has dominated lately, with three successive titles in Paris.
Madison Keys questioned ability after 2024 loss to Aryna Sabalenka
Swiatek was among Keys’ victims at the Australian Open, as was Sabalenka, who had beaten the American in their most recent meeting at the China Open in October last year.
Her coach and husband Bjorn Fratangelo has now revealed insight from the immediate aftermath of that defeat in Beijing, which incidentally represented a 15th successive win for her opponent.
“I am going to tell you one thing she told me after she lost to Sabalenka in Beijing,” he said on the Served with Andy Roddick podcast.
“We got back to the hotel room and she throws her bag down, she is sitting on the bed in silence for a couple of minutes and looks and me and says do I still have it?
“I said sorry. And she goes do I still have it? I know I can be like 30 in the world, but do you think I can still compete with Aryna and Iga and these girls or is it too far gone? I said I think you can but what I say doesn’t hold weight if you do think it.
“I said I think there’s a couple of things that need tweaking, you can’t do the same thing you have done and have the same results. But there are a few things we can work on in the off season, absolutely you can.”
Madison Keys makes ‘crazy’ racket change before Australian Open success
Keys more than recovered from that defeat, which saw her head-to-head record against Sabalenka fall to 1-4.
It of course has now been improved to 2-4 in favour of the Belarusian, with Swiatek having also fallen to the American in Melbourne.
Fratangelo and Keys clearly put the effort in following that moment, even with the latter suffering a round of 64 defeat in Wuhan shortly after.
Since then, however, the new world number seven reached the ASB Classic quarter-finals and won the Adelaide International, following that up with a maiden Grand Slam title.
Detailing the changes that also involved lowering her ball toss on serve, Fratangelo revealed: “The crazy one was the racket change. Everyone thought I was insane.
“She plays her whole career with a certain frame, just like rip the bandaid off. I tried to do it a bit the previous year because I felt like times were changing and tennis was changing, she played with a very demanding racket.
“It gave you nothing for free, you had to be on it. I could not make a ball past the service line if I hit with her racket.
“So she changed, used the same frame and opened up the string pattern. It was a little bit better and even when I would hit with her, I would have the benefit of hitting her ball and feeling like that one has weight, why doesn’t this one.
“The power was there but there was too much fluctuation. Then there was a practice she was having in Beijing with Marta Kostyuk and I am standing there watching them hit balls down the middle and they were seven minutes into the hit and Madi is on the back foot and Marta is ahead just hitting down the middle.
“I was like huh. So now the power girl is on her back legs just in a rally ball scenario. So what is going to happen and what has been happening is that she is starting to lose points where you are a little more nervous and you are de-celling on a certain ball because you are tight.
“I was like I don’t think it’s her, so in the off season when there was time to experiment… I have never seen such an impact in such a short amount of time.
“I changed rackets in my career but I wish it would have given me half the impact switching frames gave her. It opened up a whole new world.
“I was texting in the middle of December and I was like I think I have just figured out… I went from how do I keep her in the top 20 to I think she can win a Slam. I believe this again now.
“I was like she is happier, things are coming easier, the ball speed is out of control but somehow she is not missing. I was like this is nuts, this is wild.”
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