For one night only, rather than running from Harlem to the Flatiron District, Madison Avenue snaked along the Yarra River and right to the gates of Rod Laver Arena.
Madison Keys is a Grand Slam champion at last, fulfilling the destiny that had been laid out for her since turning pro at the precocious age of 14.
And by God she did it the hard way. After saving a match point to beat world No2 Iga Swiatek in the semi-finals, Keys took out world No1 Aryna Sabalenka, the winner here in the last two years, 6-3, 2-6, 7-5.
The American also beat the 6th, 10th and 28th seeds. There have been some recent surprise Grand Slam winners for whom the draw has opened up; this one closed around Keys like a vice but she smashed her way out.
How the 29-year-old has yearned for this. She craved the validation of a major title so deeply that it paralysed her. It paralysed her against Sloane Stephens in the 2017 US Open final and it paralysed her two years ago in New York in the semi-finals against Sabalenka.
‘It really started to weigh on me,’ she said. ‘What if I never do it? If I don’t do it, am I considered a failure?’
Madison Keys is a Grand Slam champion at last, 15 years after going pro at the age of just 14
After saving a match point to beat Iga Swiatek in the semi-finals, Keys took out Aryna Sabalenka 6-3, 2-6, 7-5
Keys had yearned for this; craved the validation of a major title so deeply that it paralysed her
As it turns out, only when Keys stopped wanting it so much was she able to reach out and take it.
She tried sports psychology but it was only through therapy that she pushed through that mental block. ‘It had always been too sports-specific,’ Keys said. ‘I finally got to the point where I was personally low enough that I was like, I don’t really care if this helps me perform, I just want to feel better.
‘It was really hard…very uncomfortable. But I honestly think had I not done that, I wouldn’t be sitting here.’
On court she said: ‘I didn’t know if I was ever going to have another chance to win a Grand Slam trophy. They believed in me when I didn’t believe in myself.’
‘They’ are her team and that is led by coach and husband Bjorn Fratangelo. They married in November and she has lost only a single match since, taking the Adeleide title and then the big one. It is like a real-life version of blockbuster movie Challengers, albeit with less triangularity to the romance.
Keys and former world No 99 Fratangelo have been together since 2017. As his own career drew to a close, they began to talk tennis more and more and, like a courtship in microcosm, it got more serious and then it became official.
They decided on the highly unusual move of switching rackets, from Wilson to Yonex, and it was love at first swipe for Keys, who felt to have much more control over her effortless power.
It is some effort to combine marital bliss with the tempestuous relationship of coach and player. One can imagine how such a thing could go wrong; it matters little whether a racket is Wilson or Yonex when your wife swings it at your head.
This was the clash of the titans, two of the most brutal hitters in the game
Keys began working with her husband last year and, with the help of a change of racket from Wilson to Yonex, they have refined her game
Keys lost the 2023 US Open semis to Sabalenka in a heartbreaker after taking the first set 6-0
For Sabalenka it was heartbreak, beaten for the first time at the Australian Open in three years
Fratangelo believed there was so much untapped potential, that Keys was a raw talent despite being in her 15th year as a professional. ‘Sharpening the axe can get you so far but sometimes you just need new tools,’ he said after the Swiatek victory.
As Keys refined her game, Sabalenka was the touchstone; the example of a woman who has harnessed her power, adding layer after layer to her game until greatness was achieved.
In this final, both women showed off their array of skills in a superb match full of touch and athleticism and – yes – blood-curdling power. But Keys was the one whose aggression never wavered, while Sabalenka admitted at times she was ‘just trying to put the ball back’. The world No1 smashed her racket after the match and took herself off the court to cool down before her runners-up speech. Her opponent burst into tears.
Armchair critics have told Keys many times over the years why she did not have the makings of a major champion. She was a brainless ball-basher; she lacked the nerve, the guts; she was too nice. Well she has added precision to her power; she had poise in the vital moments and, if one of the most popular players in the locker room can win one, then there’s no such thing as too nice.
It has been a long time coming but age 29 is nothing in modern tennis. Keys could do some serious damage in the years to come.
She may not be the next Serena Williams, as was once touted, but she is Madison Keys, Australian Open champion, and that will do nicely thank you very much.
This article was originally published by a www.dailymail.co.uk . Read the Original article here. .