Madison Keys (USA) wins her first Grand Slam titl,e defeating Arena Sabalenka (RUS) in the women’s final at the 2025 Australian Open at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Australia. Abaca Press

How Madison Keys broke a 50-year record with Australian Open win

By Sai Mohan | Last updated Jan 25, 2025 9:31 AM ET

Madison Keys is proof that good things happen to good people.

The veteran American stunned the tennis world Saturday by defeating World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka to capture the 2025 Australian Open title, ending a 13-year wait for an elusive grand slam.

The win came less than 48 hours after she saved a match point to complete an improbable victory over World No. 2 Iga Swiatek in the semifinal. The 29-year-old Keys has become the oldest player since 1975 to defeat the top two seeds at a Grand Slam en route to the title. She's also the first to beat the top two seeds at a major since 2009.

29,342 - Madison Keys is the oldest player to defeat the World No. 1 and No. 2 in semi-finals and final at a Grand Slam event since the WTA Rankings were published in 1975. Star. #AO2025 | @AustralianOpen @WTA @WTA_insider pic.twitter.com/4SlJBaOKbk
— OptaAce (@OptaAce) January 25, 2025

Unreal. @Madison_Keys is the first to do it Down Under since Serena in 2005 #AusOpen pic.twitter.com/BEwD4AKpi5
— Tennis Channel (@TennisChannel) January 25, 2025

The most impressive aspect of Keys' Cinderella-like run is that she defeated the best the tennis world had to offer. Historically, many dark-horse slam winners benefitted from top seeds being ousted in the earlier rounds — Barbora Krejcikova's 2024 Wimbledon win and Emma Raducanu's 2023 U.S. Open victory being recent examples.

In Keys' case, she went through a gauntlet of top-ranked players, ousting No. 6 Elena Rybakina and No. 10 Danielle Collins before knocking off Swiatek and Sabalenka. As she got deeper into the draw, Keys reiterated she was living in the moment and not thinking too far ahead. The humble Keys was willing to leave with her "head held high" so long as she left it all out on the court in pursuit of her first major.

After her career-defining moment on Saturday, Keys echoed many of those sentiments, noting that she surprised herself with her incredible run at Melbourne Park after contemplating retirement in 2024.

"I have been in one other Grand Slam final [2017 U.S. Open] and it did not go my way," an emotional Keys said at the podium. "I didn't know if I was ever going to be able to get back to this position to try to win a trophy again and my team believed in me every step of the way. They believed in me when I didn't believe in myself."

Madison Keys’ beautiful words to her team & husband after winning Australian Open

“I’ve wanted this for so long. I’ve been in 1 other slam final. I didn’t know if I’d be able to get back here. My team believed in me when I didn’t believe in myself”

pic.twitter.com/h0Tj081sjW
— The Tennis Letter (@TheTennisLetter) January 25, 2025

Keys is set to climb to a career-high World No. 7 on Monday, per WTA. She previously held that ranking for three weeks in October 2016.

Sai Mohan

A veteran sportswriter based in Portugal, Sai covers the NBA for Yardbarker and a few local news outlets. He had the honor of covering sporting events across four different continents as a newspaper reporter. Some of his all-time favorite athletes include Mike Tyson, Larry Bird, Luís Figo, Ayrton Senna and Steffi Graf.

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