Madison Keys reveals "pretty conscious decision" she made against Elena Rybakina at Australian Open
Madison Keys scored a surprise win over Kazakhstan's Elena Rybakina in the fourth round of the 2025 Australian Open on Monday, January 20. Keys, however, had to dig deep to oust the No. 6 seed.
She won the opening set by breaking Rybakina's serve twice but the latter made a swift comeback by dishing out a breadstick in the second set. The third set, however, witnessed a close fight, with the American fighting tough to save four break points in the second game.
Keys then broke the Kazakh in the following game but lost her serve in the sixth. She, however, didn't look from then on and kept Rybakina from holding serve for the remainder of the match, securing a 6-3, 1-6, 6-3 win in an hour and 50 minutes.
Having qualified for the last eight, the winner addressed the media at Melbourne Park and fielded a question from Sportskeeda on what she felt was the turning point in the match against the 2023 Australian Open runner-up.
"Obviously I got up a break early in the third set and wasn't able to kind of hang on to that, but I felt like at 3-All I made a pretty conscious decision to, you know, really try to take advantage of anything that I got as early as I could in the point," Madison Keys said, adding:
"I felt like from that moment on I really was able to just kind of dictate and run away with the last set."
Keys is now one step away from matching her best showing at the Melbourne Major as she has made it to the semifinals here in 2015 and 2022.
Madison Keys to take on Elina Svitolina in the Australian Open QFs
Madison Keys will take on Ukraine's Elina Svitolina in the quarterfinals of the 2025 Australian Open on Wednesday, January 22. She has clashed with Svitolina on the WTA tour five times already and leads the head-to-head 3-2.
However, the duo haven't met since the WTA 250 event in Adelaide two years ago, when Keys shocked Svitolina, seeded second, by defeating her 6-2, 6-4 in the Round of 32.
At the Happy Slam this year, Madison Keys has dropped two sets thus far. The first time she lost a set in the past week was against Romania's Elena Gabriela Ruse in the second round [7-6(1), 2-6, 7-5].
Elina Svitolina, on the other hand, has won all her matches in straight sets except in the third round against No. 4 seed Jasmine Paolini (2-6, 6-4, 6-0).