Madison’s Keys to the kingdom!

Underdog Madison Keys upset Aryna Sabalenka 63 26 75 in the Australian Open final on Saturday to win her first Grand Slam crown at the age of 29The American ended World No1 Sabalenkarsquos dream of becoming the first woman in 26 years to win a third successive Melbourne Park singles titleKeys yelled in delight and wiped away tears on securing the title after withstanding a fierce fightback from the twotime defending championKeys fulfils teen potentialFor 19thseeded Keys it was the culmination of a 15year journey from teenage prodigy to major winner ldquoI have wanted this for so long and I have been in one other Grand Slam final and it did not go my way I didnrsquot know if I was ever going to get back to this position to try to win a trophy againrdquo she saidThe American had been tipped as a future World No1 after winning her maiden WTA Tour match at the age of 14 She made her first major semifinal at Melbourne Park 10 years ago as a 19yearold but a decade on she can finally call herself a Grand Slam championAryna Sabalenka expresses her disappointment after losing the final PicGetty ImagesldquoI made my very first Grand Slam semifinal here in Melbournerdquo said Keys the runnerup at the US Open in 2017ldquoSo to now have won my first Grand Slam in the same place means the absolute world to merdquo added Keys who will now equal her careerhigh seventh in the world rankings she attained nine years agoKeys becomes the fourth oldest firsttime winner of a major since the Open era began 1968Sabalenka gracious in defeatSabalenka was all praise for her opponent ldquoFirst of all Madison what a tournament You have been fighting really hard to get this trophyrdquo Sabalenka saidldquoI really feel like itrsquos home when Irsquom here and Irsquoll come back stronger and do my best next yearrdquo she addedIt was Keys who came out of the blocks playing exemplary tennis to put Sabalenka under pressure and race to the first set in 35 minutes The Belarusian then flipped the script in the second set to level proceedingsSabalenka by now was timing the ball much better but Keys matched her poundforpound At 56 in the final set when Sabalenka served to take it to another tiebreak Keys brought up two match points She held her nerve to win the title on the second match point after 2hr 2minThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever