Melbourne, Jan 23 (IANS) Madison Keys of the United States saved a match point on her way to stunning No.2 seed Iga Swiatek 5-7, 6-1, 7-6(8) in the Australian Open semifinals, advancing to the second Grand Slam final of her career following the 2017 US Open. Keys had won just one of five previous meetings with Swiatek, with all four losses coming in straight sets.
The Pole served for a fifth victory at 6-5 in the decider but missed a match point with a netted backhand. Keys trailed most of the way in the ensuing super-tiebreak and was down 7-5, but found her best serves when she needed them to claim the final three points, converting her first match point after 2 hours and 35 minutes.
So tightly contested was the third set that Keys had no idea whether she had faced a match point. Keys had lost the first set and then fought back to win with a stunning comeback.
The result extends Keys’ winning streak to 11 matches, following her ninth career WTA Tour title two weeks ago in Adelaide. Keys’ current run now stands alone as the longest winning streak of her career, going one better than her 10-match streak in 2022. Then, Keys also won Adelaide and reached the Australian Open semifinals, where she fell to Ashleigh Barty.
The American will face a similar dynamic in the final against No.1 seed and two-time defending champion Aryna Sabalenka, who leads their head-to-head series 4-1. That includes all four of their hard-court meetings and both their Grand Slam encounters. Keys’ only win in the series was a 6-4, 1-6, 7-5 victory in the second round of Berlin 2021 on grass.
In the final, she will be aiming to become the fourth player this decade to defeat the World No.1 and World No.2 in the same tournament, following Sabalenka at the 2022 WTA Finals Fort Worth (beating Ons Jabeur and Swiatek), Barbora Krejcikova at Dubai 2023 (beating Sabalenka and Swiatek) and Elena Rybakina at Indian Wells 2023 (beating Swiatek and Sabalenka).
The defeat marks Swiatek’s second loss in as many Australian Open semifinals. In 2022, she fell at the same stage as another big-hitting American, Danielle Collins. Her loss means that Sabalenka is guaranteed to retain the World No.1 ranking following the Australian Open.
–IANS
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