Madison Keys unlocks Elena Rybakina serve to reach Australian Open quarters

MELBOURNE – American Madison Keys upset sixth seed Elena Rybakina 6-3, 1-6, 6-3 in a roller-coaster match at Margaret Court Arena to march into the quarter-finals of the Australian Open on Jan 20 and extend her winning streak to nine matches in 2025.

Adelaide Open champion Keys had lost to the Kazakh in their last two encounters but was well in control for most of the last-16 tie, barring a rough patch in the second set when she lost four straight games.

Rybakina seemed to be struggling with a lower back injury that had affected her in the third round and Keys was able to play aggressively to neutralise her big serve and take control of the rallies.

“Her serve is such a weapon, so I knew that if I could just try to make at least some of her service games a little bit competitive, then I had a chance,” said the 19th seed, who chalked up her third win over a top-10 player in January.

“So I was basically just trying to make anything that I could get my racket on back over the net, which worked sometimes.”

With her back against the wall, Rybakina was serving to stay in the first set when she made consecutive double faults to hand Keys the opener in 35 minutes.

Rybakina took a bathroom break before the start of the second and that took all the momentum away from Keys, who made more unforced errors in the first two games than she had in the opening set.

As Keys’ level dropped, Rybakina took full advantage and broke the American’s serve three times to force a decider.

Keys had a crucial hold in the second game of the third set after it went to deuce five times and that seemed to give her the confidence to play her shots again.

The two-time Australian Open semi-finalist moved up a gear and sealed her spot in the next round with a searing cross-court winner on her second match point.

“I’ve actually been working on trying to play a little bit more aggressive,” Keys said. “I found that in the second set, I got a little bit nervous and I felt like I got a little bit passive.”

She will next play Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina, who beat Veronika Kudermetova 6-4, 6-1.

Rybakina said her back was in better condition going into the match but the 25-year-old added that she was still in some pain and would take time off to rest before tournaments in the Middle East.

Later on Jan 20, Emma Navarro said she was just “staying alive” after winning a fourth consecutive three-set marathon to set up a quarter-final against Iga Swiatek.

The American eighth seed eventually beat Daria Kasatkina 6-4, 5-7, 7-5 in two hours and 40 minutes after blowing three match points in the second set.

“They played that song that goes ‘staying alive’ at 5-4 in the third set,” said Navarro, who created 25 break points only to see her Russian opponent save 16 of them.

“And I kind of felt like that was really appropriate this whole tournament,” added the 2024 US Open semi-finalist, who is in her maiden quarter-final at Melbourne Park. “I’ve just been staying alive, so hoping to continue on that train.”

She has spent more than 10 hours on court this year in Melbourne in her four three-setters, five-and-a-half hours more than second seed Swiatek, who has dropped only 11 games in the tournament.

Five-time Major champion Swiatek said she had “closure” after the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) announced on Jan 20 it will not appeal to sport’s highest court in her doping case.

The world No. 2, who beat Eva Lys 6-0, 6-1 on Jan 20, accepted a one-month ban in late 2024 after testing positive for the banned substance trimetazidine.

The Pole had accepted the ban after explaining that her positive test was the result of contamination of her sleep medication melatonin.

The International Tennis Integrity Agency had accepted Swiatek’s contamination explanation.

Wada made the decision after “a thorough review” found that the “contaminated melatonin scenario, as presented by the athlete... is plausible”, it said.

Swiatek said: “I’m just satisfied that I can get a closure, kind of, and I can just move on and finish this whole process.” REUTERS, AFP