Keys wins 10th straight match, tops Svitolina to make Australian Open semis
With a come-from-behind win, Madison Keys of the United States has extended her brilliant start to the season all the way into the Australian Open semifinals.
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No.19 seed Keys clinched a spot in her seventh Grand Slam semifinal, and her third semifinal in Melbourne, with a 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 victory over No.28 seed Elina Svitolina of Ukraine in their quarterfinal clash on Wednesday.
In a Rod Laver Arena afternoon showdown, former World No.7 Keys battled from a set down to defeat former World No.3 Svitolina in their first meeting in three years. After the 1-hour and 53-minute triumph, Keys now leads their head-to-head 4-2.
"I'm really, really proud of myself to be in another semifinal here and kind of hoping and looking forward to see if I can make it one step further," Keys said, after her win.
Back in the Australian Open final four for the first time since 2022, Keys will next face World No.2 Iga Swiatek on Thursday night. Swiatek leads their head-to-head 4-1, although they have split their two hard-court meetings, with Keys getting her win at 2022 Cincinnati.
Ten and counting: Keys has now won ten straight matches during her hot start to 2025, having collected her ninth career title last week in Adelaide. Overall, she is 12-1 on the season with her only loss coming to eventual champion Clara Tauson in Auckland.
This current run ties Keys' career-best winning streak, and she carved almost exactly the same path both times. Her previous 10-match win streak came in 2022, when she won the WTA 250 in Adelaide (this year she won the WTA 500 in the same city) and made the Australian Open semifinals.
After barely surviving a second-round match against qualifier Elena-Gabriela Ruse (7-5 in the third set), Keys has knocked out three seeds in a row, besting No.10 seed Danielle Collins and No.6 seed Elena Rybakina before her win over Svitolina.
Armed with a revamped service motion and an equipment change, Keys now stands one win away from her second Grand Slam final. Keys' previous major final came at the 2017 US Open, where she fell to her friend and compatriot Sloane Stephens in just over an hour.
"At this point, everyone has also won some really great matches, and we're all playing some really good tennis," Keys said. "This is really what they call the business end of the tournament.
"So as much as you have experience in all of that, at the end of the day it's also you just have to go out and do your best and leave it all out there. I think as long as I can do that, no matter what happens, then I can walk away with my head held high."
Pivotal moments: After the first set, it looked like Svitolina might be the one to prevail. Playing in her first tournament since last year’s US Open and subsequent foot surgery, Svitolina used strong returns to convert her only break point of the opener. Keys also ceded 15 unforced errors to Svitolina in the first set.
But Keys turned the tide in the second set, slamming a forehand winner to break for 4-2 and claim control of the encounter. The American regularly found herself in the forecourt, and she flourished there, converting 10 of 12 net points in the second set as she eventually leveled the match.
Keys needed only one break in the final set, slamming a backhand return winner to break for 3-2. Svitolina stayed with her for the rest of the match, but the Ukrainian was unable to muster up a break point in the final set. All told, Keys finished with 49 winners to Svitolina’s 20 as she battled into the semis.
"I think in the second set I really just started trying to get to the net a lot more and really kind of take advantage of some of the short balls that I was getting," Keys said. "Just being able to do that, I feel like I kind of ran with the momentum after that."
