Madison Keys of the United States defeated Kazakhstan’s Elena Rybakina on Monday, January 20, 2025, advancing to the Australian Open quarterfinals with a nine-game winning streak. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)
On the ninth day of the Australian Open, No. 19 seed Madison Keys pulled off a huge upset at Margaret Court Arena, defeating No. 6 seed Elena Rybakina 6-3, 1-6, 6-3 and advancing to the quarter-finals of the tournament. advanced to the finals.
Rybakina fought back throughout the match despite battling a back injury and won the second set. But she didn’t have an answer for Keyes’ consistent return of serve.
After her third-round win over Dayana Yastremska, Rybakina admitted to reporters that her back was a big problem, saying it “doesn’t look very good” and that she would need “magic” to advance in the tournament. Ta.
After losing her previous two matches against Rybakina, Keys won nine in a row with the win over Rybakina.
Keys said in the post-match interview, “Today I just focused on getting as many returns as I could with my plays. Her serve is such a weapon.” “I knew if I could make at least some of her service games competitive, I had a chance.”
Keys will face Elina Svitolina in Wednesday’s quarterfinals. Svitolina advanced by defeating Veronika Kudermetova in straight sets, 6-4, 6-1.
Jannik Sinner, the men’s No. 1 seed and defending Australian Open champion, overcame an illness that caused several treatment delays during his fourth-round match. In the fourth set, the net was broken and play was delayed.
Sinner ultimately defeated world No. 13 Holger Ruhn 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2, but visibly struggled during the match, sitting out between sets. I could see him shaking when he was there.
“It was a very strange morning today. I didn’t even warm up today and just tried to get on the court as fit as possible,” Sinner told Jim Courier after the game. “Right before the game, I knew in my heart that I was going to struggle today.”
With this win, Sinner became the fourth player to reach the quarterfinals of a tour-level tournament in 15 consecutive matches, joining Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic. The 23-year-old became the youngest male player to win 18 consecutive hard court Grand Slam matches since John McEnroe in 1981.
Sinner will face Australian Alex de Minaur in the quarterfinals. The eighth seed defeated Alex Michelsen 6-0, 7-6 (7-5), 6-3 to advance past the fourth round of the tournament for the first time.
De Minaur becomes the first Australian male player to reach the quarter-finals of the Australian Open since Nick Kyrgios in 2015. So far, he has reached the quarterfinals of the US Open, French Open, and Wimbledon.
“It means the world,” de Minaur said after the game. “There’s nothing I want more than to play well in front of you here in Australia, so I’m happy to finally be here in the quarter-finals. Let’s aim for bigger and better things.”
De Minaur and Sinner have met nine times in the past, with the Italian winning all of them.
In the women’s fourth round, eighth-seeded Emma Navarro fought through three sets to defeat ninth-seeded Daria Kasatkina 6-4, 5-7, 7-5. The match was a back-and-forth affair, with each player continually breaking the opponent’s serve. Kasatkina looked like she would tie the score in the third set, but suffered four consecutive errors.
Navarro needed three sets to win all three matches at this year’s Australian Open, making it to the quarterfinals not easy. She defeated Peyton Stearns 6-7, 7-6, 7-5 in the opening round and Xiu Wang 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 in the second round. In the third round, Navarro defeated Ons Jabour, 6-4, 3-6, 6-4.
Second-seeded Iga Swiatek easily defeated Eva Lys 6-0, 6-1 in straight sets and awaits Navarro in Wednesday’s quarterfinals. All of Swiatek’s matches at this year’s Australian Open were straight wins.
Perhaps as a warning to Navarro, Swiatek said there is room for improvement.
“I don’t feel like I’ve reached my peak yet, but a match like that definitely gives me confidence,” Swiatek said in the post-match interview. “I feel like I played a good game.”
Off court, Swiatek learned that the World Anti-Doping Agency would not appeal his one-month suspension for testing positive for the banned substance trimetazidine in August. WADA’s investigation into the incident found that Ms Swiatek’s positive test was the result of contamination from the melatonin she was taking.
Swiatek was given a one-month suspension that ends on December 4th.
