It took Madison Keys seven and a half years to reach her second final of the Grand Slam title. This time she kept her nerve. Therapy and a change of attitude helped.
Barfuß and in a light and airy dress, Madison Keys walked along the beach like an ordinary tourist. Only the silver trophy in her hands and the many cameras pointed at her revealed that something special was going on. The casual surroundings and relaxed outfit at the photo shoot on Brighton Beach perfectly matched the American’s mood. The day before, the tennis player had finally freed herself from her constraints and fears with a 6-3, 2-6, 7-5 final coup at the Australian Open against the favored Aryna Sabalenka.
“I can’t believe what happened last night,” the 29-year-old said in a video message, ‘But I’m so, so happy and honored to have won my first Grand Slam here in Melbourne.’ On her social media channels, Keys posted a picture of herself with the trophy, adding just three words: ‘I did it.’
Panic because of the prophecy
After years of self-doubt and a huge amount of pressure imposed from the outside and inside, the new tennis queen of Melbourne felt a pleasant lightness in the moment of triumph. “I’m really proud of myself,” she said. “I didn’t always believe that I could get back to this point. But that I made it and won means the world to me.”
Madison Keys was once a prophecy in US tennis. At the age of 11 or 12, she was already said to have the potential to become a future Grand Slam champion. She celebrated her first professional victory at the age of 14, with the media raving about the ‘new Serena Williams’. But it took a while for her first Grand Slam final to materialize. The 3-6, 0-6 loss to compatriot Sloane Stephens at the 2017 US Open was painful, but everyone thought Keys would get more chances like that.
Therapy helped against fear of failure
In fact, however, Keys had to wait seven and a half years for her second chance. The enormous expectations were “a pretty heavy burden” and caused her “a small panic”. She constantly asked herself: “Why hasn’t it happened yet? Why didn’t I make it? If I don’t make it, will I be considered a failure?”
The breakthrough finally came at the stage of her career when she no longer chased her big dream with all her might. “I finally accepted that it wasn’t happening,” she said. It was only this composure that gave her the ability to “really play good tennis to actually win a Grand Slam.”
Keys revealed that not only her husband and coach Björn Fratangelo helped her on this journey, but also “a lot of therapy”. This helped her to learn an important insight for her sport: “I can be nervous and still play good tennis.”
This mental strength also helped Keys in the final against Sabalenka. Very few players on the tour would still be able to win after losing the second set 6-2 to the otherwise so confident Belarusian. “Wow, what a tournament,” the world number one said to Keys, ‘you played incredibly.’ And incidentally, the winner of 2023 and 2024 has blocked the title hat-trick.
Just how much Keys wanted it is also shown by the fact that she fought her way to the title in three-set matches from the round of 16 onwards. This has never happened before in the professional history of the Australian Open. Keys is also the first player in 20 years to beat the world’s top one and two in Melbourne during the tournament. In the semi-finals, the 19th-seeded American knocked out the world’s second-ranked Iga Swiatek.
