Irresistible Keys Unlocks Slam Door

'Lots of therapy' help the 29-year-old beat Sabalenka for title and validation finally

- Rohit Brijnath

At the end of a match dipped in grit and tension, emotion was finally allowed to spill free. A broken racket lay on the floor and two formidable women were weeping. One had won 92 points, the other 91. The defending champion, unseated, wept under her towel. The new champion, triumphant, cried in the arms of her team. This is what a first Grand Slam title means.

In an unlikely and popular victory, Madison Keys, the 19th-seeded outsider, upset the two-time winner Aryna Sabalenka 6-3, 2-6, 7-5 in the Australian Open women's final. It might take a month before her joyous smile escapes her face. A 12-year-old prodigy who struggled with expectation has finally found victory and validation at 29.

"I have wanted this for so long," she said.

Then she cried some more.

Hang in there, coaches have always told those who fall short. Don't quit. Your time will come. After a while this sounds like a tedious platitude, but then suddenly, from nowhere, a beaten-down athlete arrives to prove those words true and claim her place in history.

Keys has been to 45 Grand Slam events before this Open, been to an Australian semi-final in 2015, been to a US final in 2017, striven, fallen, had her heart stepped on, confidence bruised, and yet here she was, trophy in hand, having beaten the world No. 2 Iga Swiatek and No. 1 Sabalenka in succession. Sport never gets old in the miraculous stories it tells.