Madison Keys Saves Match Point, Shocks Swiatek in Australian Open Semifinals

The Pole served for a fifth victory at 6-5 in the decider but spurned match point with a netted backhand. Keys trailed most of the way in the ensuing super-tiebreak and was 7-5 behind but found some of her better serves when they counted to steal the final three points, claiming the first after 2 hours 35 minutes.

Madison Keys of the United States won a match point on her way to astonishing 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 after the 2017 US Open. Keys had won just one of five prior meetings with Swiatek, and all four defeats were in straight sets.

The Pole served for a fifth victory at 6-5 in the decider but spurned match point with a netted backhand. Keys trailed most of the way in the ensuing super-tiebreak and was 7-5 behind but found some of her better serves when they counted to steal the final three points, claiming the first after 2 hours 35 minutes.

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So closely contested was the third set that Keys wasn't sure if she had faced a match point. Keys had lost the first set and then really fought her way back to win with that incredible comeback.

The win puts Keys into a 11-match winning streak, two weeks after she took her ninth WTA Tour title in Adelaide. Keys' run now stands alone as the longest winning streak of her career, one better than her 10-match streak in 2022. Keys won Adelaide and then reached the Australian Open semifinals, where she lost to Ashleigh Barty.

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The American will also 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'll seek to join Sabalenka in 2022 WTA Finals Fort Worth in becoming only the fourth player in this decade to beat World No.1 and World No.2 inside a single event following Barbora Krejcikova at Dubai 2023 after beating both Sabalenka and Swiatek and Elena Rybakina at Indian Wells 2023 having beaten Swiatek and then Sabalenka.

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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.

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