One year later, Madison Keys reflects on first Grand Slam title

MELBOURNE, Australia -- It's been nearly 365 days since Madison Keys won her first Grand Slam title after defeating Aryna Sabalenka 6-3, 2-6, 7-5 in the 2025 Australian Open final.

The win capped off a terrific Australian summer last year for Keys who earned titles in Adelaide and Melbourne, part of 16-match win streak that extended into Indian Wells.

With Keys set to begin her quest to defend her title on Tuesday against Oleksandra Oliynykova, wtatennis.com caught up with the World No. 9 last week in Adelaide to look back on an incredible Australian Open run:

Q: How did you feel entering the 2025 Australian swing after your offseason?

Keys: Last year, I felt really good coming into the Australian Open swing. I had a really, kind of, long offseason, so I was able to break it up and have two different blocks. 

I got married in the middle of it, so I was riding high (laughing). 

Q: Did you have specific expectations or objectives for the Australian swing last year, and do you set tournament expectations for yourself, generally speaking? 

Keys: I typically don't have specific rounds in my head. It's really more so how do I go out, how do I try to do the things that I want do each match. Ultimately, I'd be lying if I said that I don't want to try to win the tournament every single week.

Q: How do you personally evaluate how well you performed in a certain tournament regardless of how far you advanced?

Keys: I think that's the hard part about tennis is obviously that it's all results based. It's all what you're ranking is, and all of that. That's kind of how everyone else evaluates you, but tennis is also such a tough sport where you can do everything right, but the person on the other side of the net just did a little bit better that day.

I try to evaluate myself more so on was I doing what the game plan was, how did I execute it. If I wasn't executing it, how did I try to change the game plan or how did I adjust throughout the match.

Just worrying about winning and losing every singles week, we'd all be even more crazy than we are (smiling). 

Q: Can you reflect on your 2025 Australian Open run and was there ever a moment where you were felt 'I've got this'? 

Keys: I don't think I ever thought I had it in the bag (laughing). 

That was honestly the most insane three weeks, including the week before in Adelaide. It was just the most insane three weeks that you could really put together. I had to play so many great players. I played so many three-set matches.

I really kept my head down and I never really knew who I was playing the next round. I was just so focused on  the match directly in front of me. I definitely never thought I had it in the bag, even in the finals, it was one of those matches where you're like 'wow, this could really go either way.

It was 5-all, 30-all (third set). Aryna hit a really good return and I somehow hit the shot of my life and was able to go up 40-30. I won the game, and I remember walking to my chair and being like 'OK, I can do this. I feel this is a big game where I'm just going to swing for it.' If not, it was going to go to a tiebreaker. 

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Q: What was your favorite moment of all the post-championship celebrations? What do you remember most?

Keys: I will say it's very funny winning and realizing how quickly they put you to work. You're immediately doing press (laughing). You're on cloud nine and then you float around. I don't even remember what I said to most people.

It was really cool because one of my best friends does commentary for Sky Sports, Laura Robson. She was court side. When I won, I could see her and we mouthed a conversation to each other. That was really cool to me and experience it with someone that I grew up with playing juniors with and someone that I'm so close to. 

It's very cool now that your team is just basically sitting on the court. It felt they were way more involved in it because they were just so much closer. Being able to walk over and immediately be with them was just something that I'll always remember.

Q: What has been like being the defending champion and does that affect you heading into this Australian Open?

Keys: There's obviously going to be nerves, but there's always nerves. Every time you walk out and you play your first round at a Grand Slam, you always feel nervous. Will there be more? Probably.

I'm actually really looking forward to it because I grew up dreaming of being able to win a Grand Slam. The fan support and the amount of people that told me that they cried watching me, just I feel that was so cool. At no point when I was growing up was I thinking that me achieving my goal could have such an impact on everyone else, and so many people would be so interested in me because of that.

This is going to be such a cool experience to go back and be a defending champion because it's literally something that I dreamed of. I'm more really excited to get to have that experience and that opportunity because how cool is it that I was able to achieve something that when I was 5 years old, I always dreamed of.

Q: How are you feeling entering the 2026 Australian Open?

Keys: I'm feeling good, I think it's obviously a very different position to be in once you're the defending champion. I'd be lying if I said I'd feel the exact same way.

But at the same time, I train in Orlando and Ben Shelton and his dad, Bryan, are there all the time. He always has such a great perspective of that he hates hearing 'you have to defend and all that.' His big thing is always every single year is a restart. Everyone starts at zero.

Obviously there's weeks where I have a lot of points and I did really well last year, but also there's plenty of opportunities to do better than last year. There's some weeks where I didn't do as well, and everyone is at zero. I'm much more focused on the race than the rankings.