Madison Keys had to run the gauntlet just to reach the semifinals of the Australian Open, battling past three current or former Top 10 players—Danielle Collins, Elena Rybakina and Elina Svitolina—in the third round, fourth round and quarterfinals.
It got even tougher from there—but Keys got going, pulling off nail-biting wins over the Top 2-ranked players in the world. First, she rallied from match point down, at 6-5 in the third set, for a over world No. 2 Iga Swiatek.
Then, she showed her best tennis at the most pressure-packed moments in her 6-3, 2-6, 7-5 defeat of world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka in the final.