Madison Keys: from teenage prodigy to Melbourne finalist at 29 / Photo: © AFP
Madison Keys: from teenage prodigy to Melbourne finalist at 29
Former teenage prodigy Madison Keys arrived in Australia with the goal of seeing how well she could perform with her 30th birthday approaching next month.
The resilient American now has the answer -- right up with the best -- after reaching Saturday's final, where she will face two-time defending champion Aryna Sabalenka.
Keys is enjoying a renaissance having reached a second Grand Slam final eight years after her first in New York.
Now ranked 14, she will return to the top 10 for the first time since 2019.
She made her first semi-final at Melbourne Park in 2015 as a 19-year-old.
Now she now finds herself in the final a decade later, tasked with preventing Sabalenka from becoming the first woman to win three Melbourne crowns in a row since Martina Hingis from 1997-1999.
Keys ended her season early in October last year and married her coach, Bjorn Fratangelo, a month later.
The two players had been dating since 2017 and Fratangelo became her coach in 2023.
It will be a match made in heaven if the couple bring home a maiden major after Saturday.
- 'Sharpening the axe' -
"It was just kind of like: how much do you want to get out of this?" Fratangelo told reporters on Friday about their on-court relationship, before warning that Keys's best was yet to come.
"I think she's nowhere near her full potential," added Fratangelo, a fellow American who won the boys' singles at the 2011 French Open.
"Sharpening the axe can get you so far, but sometimes you just need new tools. I think that's what I've tried to bring to the table.
"I just thought: OK, if we make a few changes and some subtle tweaks here and there... then all of a sudden you're in the mix, and you're being talked about again, like she is now."
Keys is not only in the mix, she has a real chance of another upset in the final with a power game that is very similar to that of Sabalenka's.
"Maybe Aryna is a little more of the polished version of Madison," said Fratangelo.
"But what I've seen from her now is just what the greats do -- they have the ability to raise the level when it matters most."
Keys had already beaten former Melbourne finalists Danielle Collins and Elena Rybakina before coming from a set down and saving a match point against world number two Iga Swiatek in her semi-final.
"That was as gutsy as I've ever seen her compete," said Fratangelo after Keys came through a nerve-curdling third-set tiebreak.
"To do it on that occasion against someone you could already say is an all-time great in Iga.
"How she managed her way through all three sets really was awesome."
A.Amaya--ESF
