On a temperate evening in Melbourne, 19th seed Madison Keys of the United States faced off against hardcourt queen (and world number one) Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus in the 2025 Australian Open women’s singles final, clinching the match 6-3, 2-6, 7-5.
The win came more than seven years after Keys’s first (and, until this year, only) appearance in a major final—at the 2017 US Open, where she played a fairly disastrous match against Sloane Stephens.
A different result for Sabalenka, meanwhile, would have made her only the seventh player in history to win the title here three years in a row, after victories over Elena Rybakina in 2023 and Qinwen Zheng in 2024.
Both players are big hitters, but the first set was a largely one-sided contest, spelling trouble for Sabalenka from her very first game: Double-faulting twice, she gave Keys an early break. From then, the hard work that Keys had been doing on both her service and return games with Bjorn Fratangelo, her coach and husband, was in evidence. (It’s not for nothing that she’d won 13 of her first 14 matches of 2025 going into today’s final, despite a tough draw at this tournament.) Focused and calm, she looked strong, attacking and defending with equal power. Though Sabalenka got on the board after her second game, Keys was up a double break (4-1) just 17 minutes into the match, with commentators noting that she seemed to be picking up where she’d left things during her astonishing semifinal against Iga Świątek on Thursday—a three-set scorcher.
Of course, Sabalenka being Sabalenka, the set wasn’t a total rout. After winning her second game of the set, she was right there when Keys began to wobble, getting a break. But it wasn’t enough: Keys ultimately took the set 6-3.
The second set was a different story. After getting up an early break, Sabalenka turned things around, taking charge as the unforced errors crept in on Keys’s end. Both moving better and serving with far more control, it wasn’t long before Sabalenka had won five straight games. She would take the set 6-2.
The final set was more evenly matched, with both players absolutely dialed in—and the crowd just delighted by the quality of the tennis. Yet that battle of wills concluded with a thrilling forehand winner from Keys—who instantly burst into tears. A hard-won result for a true power player.
As fierce as she is delightful, Sabalenka was gracious accepting her second-place prize after the match. “You crushed this tonight,” she said to Keys. “Congrats to you and your team—really well deserved.” She went on to joke to her own team: “I love you, even though we lost.”
“Bear with me, I’m absolutely going to cry,” Keys said when it was her turn to take the mic. After congratulating Sabalenka on her run and thanking the fans and sponsors in Melbourne for their support, she paid a special tribute to her team. “They believed in me when I didn’t believe in myself. and helped me every step of the way. To be here and have this trophy…and also be able to do it with my husband…I love you all so much, and cannot wait for more.”