20 magnificent things Madison Keys achieved by winning the Australian Open

Madison Keys’ Cinderella run to her first Grand Slam title at the Australian Open was magical in a lot of ways, including all of the incredible stats and records she achieved—here are just 20 of them:

First of all, she’s the first American woman—or American, period—to win the Australian Open in five years. Sofia Kenin was the last U.S. player to conquer Melbourne, in 2020. The last U.S. man to conquer Melbourne was Andre Agassi, in 2003.

She’s just the third woman in the Open Era to win five three-setters en route to capturing a Grand Slam title. She battled to three-set wins over Elena-Gabriela Ruse in the second round, Elena Rybakina in the fourth round, Elina Svitolina in the quarterfinals, world No.2 Iga Swiatek in the semifinals and world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka in the final. The first two women both did it at Roland Garros—Serena Williams in 2015 and Jelena Ostapenko in 2017.

Having won the title in Adelaide, she’s the first woman to win a lead-up event the week before a major and then go on to win that major since Barbora Krejcikova at Roland Garros in 2021. The Czech won the lead-up event in Strasbourg the week before heading to Paris that year.

At 29 years young, Keys is the fourth-oldest first-time Grand Slam women’s champion in the Open Era. The top three in that stat are Flavia Pennetta at the 2015 US Open (33), Ann Jones at 1969 Wimbledon (30) and Francesca Schiavone at 2010 Roland Garros (also 29).

And with it being her 46th Grand Slam event played, it was also the third-most Grand Slams played for a woman in the Open Era before winning one, trailing only Pennetta at the 2015 US Open (49th played) and Marion Bartoli at 2013 Wimbledon (47th played).

Next up, Keys adds her name to some very historic lists.

Since WTA rankings began in 1975, she’s just the 10th woman to defeat both the world No. 1 and the world No. 2 at a Grand Slam event. She’s the first woman to do it at the Australian Open since Serena in 2005, and the first woman to do it at any major since Svetlana Kuznetsova at 2009 Roland Garros.

WOMEN TO BEAT BOTH NO. 1 AND NO. 2 AT A MAJOR:

• Tracy Austin [1979 US Open]
• Hana Mandlikova [1985 US Open]
• Steffi Graf [1999 Roland Garros]
• Serena Williams [1999 US Open, 2002 Roland Garros, 2005 Australian Open]
• Venus Williams [2000 Wimbledon, 2000 US Open, 2005 Wimbledon]
• Jennifer Capriati [2001 Australian Open]
• Justine Henin [2003 Roland Garros]
• Maria Sharapova [2006 US Open]
• Svetlana Kuznetsova [2009 Roland Garros]
• Madison Keys [2025 Australian Open]

She’s also just the 14th woman in the Open Era to save a match point en route to winning a Grand Slam title, having saved one down 6-5 in the third set against Swiatek in the semifinals.

WOMEN TO SAVE MATCH POINT EN ROUTE TO WINNING A MAJOR (Open Era):

• Martina Navratilova [1986 US Open]
• Monica Seles [1991 Australian Open]
• Jennifer Capriati [2002 Australian Open]
• Serena Williams [2003 Australian Open, 2005 Australian Open, 2009 Wimbledon]
• Anastasia Myskina [2004 Roland Garros]
• Justine Henin [2005 Roland Garros]
• Venus Williams [2005 Wimbledon]
• Li Na [2014 Australian Open]
• Angelique Kerber [2016 Australian Open]
• Caroline Wozniacki [2018 Australian Open]
• Naomi Osaka [2021 Australian Open]
• Barbora Krejcikova [2021 Roland Garros]
• Iga Swiatek [2024 Roland Garros]
• Madison Keys [2025 Australian Open]

And when you line up the above two lists, it gets even more historic: Keys’ triumph at the 2025 Australian Open marked just the third time a woman has defeated No. 1 and No. 2 AND saved a match point en route to winning a Grand Slam title. The Williams sisters achieved the near-impossible feat once each, both in 2005, Serena at the Australian Open and Venus at Wimbledon.

WOMEN TO BEAT THE TOP 2 AND SAVE MATCH POINT EN ROUTE TO WINNING A MAJOR:

• Serena Williams at 2005 Australian Open (d. No. 2 Mauresmo in QFs, saved 3mp to d. Sharapova in SFs, d. No. 1 Davenport in F)
• Venus Williams at 2005 Wimbledon (d. No. 2 Sharapova in SFs, saved 1mp to d. No. 1 Davenport in F)
• Madison Keys at 2025 Australian Open (saved 1mp to d. No. 2 Swiatek in SFs, d. No. 1 Sabalenka in F)

She snapped all kinds of Sabalenka winning streaks. Not only had the world No. 1 won her last 20 matches in a row at the Australian Open, she had also won her last 20 matches in a row at hard-court majors. She was also on an 18-match winning streak in the country of Australia.

And having beaten Swiatek while she was No. 1, at Cincinnati in 2022, she’s now the fourth player ever to have wins over both Swiatek and Sabalenka while they’re ranked No. 1. The other three are Jessica Pegula, Coco Gauff and Rybakina (who’s beaten them both multiple times as No. 1).

Her wins over Rybakina, Swiatek and Sabalenka were her eighth, ninth and 10th career wins over Top 10 players at majors. She’s now 10-13 overall against the elite at majors—broken down that’s 7-4 at the Australian Open, 0-2 at Roland Garros, 0-4 at Wimbledon and 3-3 at the US Open.

She’s now 5-0 against Top 10 players this year. She beat Daria Kasatkina (No. 9) and Pegula (No. 7) in Adelaide and Rybakina (No. 7), Swiatek (No. 2) and Sabalenka (No. 1) at the Australian Open.

… and 10-0 against Top 30 players this year. Add in wins over Beatriz Haddad Maia (No. 16), Ostapenko (No. 17) and Luidmila Samsonova (No. 26) in Adelaide and Danielle Collins (No. 11) and Svitolina (No. 27) at the Australian Open.

She’s now 14-1 overall this year, the most wins for any player this year, female or male. Her only loss so far in 2025 came to No. 50-ranked Clara Tauson in the quarterfinals of Auckland.

And it goes on…

She’s the first No. 19-seeded woman to win a Grand Slam title in the Open Era. No. 19 was one of three Top 20 seeds yet to win one—we’re still waiting for No. 16 and No. 18…

She surpassed $20 million in career prize money. With her $3,500,000 champion’s cheque, she soared to $22,518,583 for her career. She’s the 26th woman in WTA history to surpass $20 million, and just the sixth American woman after Navratilova, Davenport, the Williams sisters and Gauff.

Her run to the title propelled her from No. 14 to No. 7 on the WTA rankings this week. She’s now back at the career-high ranking she first reached in 2016.

She’s now risen from No. 20 to No. 7 in just three weeks. After winning the lead-up event in Adelaide the week before the Australian Open, she rose from No. 20 to No. 14.

She leaves Australia on a 12-match winning streak, the longest winning streak of her career. She went 5-0 to win the Adelaide title and 7-0 to win the Australian Open title.

And finally, she has a great chance at reaching the Top 5 now—or even higher. She didn’t even start her 2024 season until Indian Wells due to a shoulder injury, and it took her a little while to gather steam, as she was just 3-3 going into Madrid. So she has very few points to defend until late April…