Madison Keys wins first major in 2025 tennis season: the Australian Open
hey, girl – don’t even think about snatching this
Okay – so I made up the caption, mate. Don’t hold that against me, but I thought when I saw her interview that Keys held the trophy mighty close and why wouldn’t she?
This was her 46th. try to win one of the four major grand slam tennis tournaments over her career that began fifteen years ago when she turned pro at age 14. Her only other major final was in 2017 at the US Open when she lost to fellow American Sloane Stephens. Inspired by the play of Venus Williams, trained by the legendary Chris Evert at the Evert Academy in Florida, and in more recent years coached by Lindsay Davenport, another American women’s singles champion who won three majors in her career – Madison Keys will find her name and image in the walk of champions leading to the Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne, Australia, when she returns next year.
For my followers who are tennis lovers like me, I hope you take the time to read records broken by Keys in the 2025 AO. Amazing. Awesome.
Congratulations, Madison! Your win was impressive, and I celebrate that victory with you; but more than that, I admire your courage to keep going for fifteen years that included injuries, heartbreaking losses, disappointing defeats. Sport often teaches us the importance of perseverance and resilience – your commitment is a powerful example of life lessons to be learned.
Onward, Madison Keys. Keep that trophy close on your way home to us, and best wishes for your continued victories in 2025. You rock, girl.
So you think you know snow? Ha. We are rolling in it in the sunny South. On January 22, 2022, I began this post with pictures of snow in our backyard.
only one dog outsidewith me three years ago: Carl
Carport Kitty reignedin the winter of 2022
(she died in October of 2022 – she never had to face a cold winter again)
Carport Kitty and Pretty have similar feelings about winter. Thankfully her heated pad keeps her toasty warm in the laundry room – Carport Kitty, not Pretty. Heh, heh.
The sun also rises, the snowflakes melt, and Pretty will leave me to work in her antique empire while I watch the disgraceful television coverage of the 2022 Australian Open this afternoon. Bollocks.
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Fast forward exactly three years to January 22, 2025. Old man Spike walks with me in the fresh snow around the pool in our backyard.
Carl still with us but prefers staying inside over his cold paws in the snow
to each his own, right?
The Australian Open is winding down to its inevitable close this weekend. We have three Americans in semi-finals this week, and not one of them is named Venus or Serena. Hm. Ben Shelton is in the semi-finals for men’s singles, Madison Keys is also in a singles semi-final, and Taylor Townsend plays doubles with K. Siniakova for the women’s doubles semi-final. Spoiler alert: at least one American will play in a final.
Between snow and semis, my sleep pattern is wrecked. I barely know what day it is on this continent – much less in Australia.
Vive la difference. Stay safe and warm. Please stay tuned. We enjoy your visits!
Thirty-two year old Alize Cornet of Nice, France upset former world #1 tennis player Simona Halep in the 4th. round of the 2022 Australian Open tennis tournament in Melbourne to move her into the second week of a grand slam tournament, any grand slam tournament, for the first time in her life. She had played in 62 consecutive main draws in grand slam events but never made it past the 4th. round.
In sweltering 90+ degree heat against one of the most formidable opponents in women’s tennis today, Cornet defied herself and the oddsmakers by defeating Halep in a best two of three sets match. She was overcome by tears of joy, perhaps a generous helping of disbelief, and said in her interview following the match, “It’s never too late to try again.”
For Cornet, regardless of her results in the quarterfinals this year, the number 63 will always be her magic number.
Alize Cornet (Wikipedia image)
Should you be able to answer a quiz on who the following eight women in alphabetical order are: Ashleigh Barty, Danielle Collins, Alize Cornet, Kaia Kanepi, Madison Keys, Barbora Krejcikova, Jessica Pegula, Iga Swiatek. Only if you’re following the women’s singles matches in the 2022 Australian Open because these women are not household names; yet they survived the challenges of competing against the heat, their opponents and themselves to reach the quarterfinals in week #2 of the first grand slam event of the year. They are the best of the best down under in 2022. And I dare you to pronounce their names out loud.
Twenty-seven year old Ash Barty is no surprise to make it to the Elite Eight of the tournament since she is currently ranked #1 in the world by the Women’s Tennis Association, a place she has held since September, 2019. She won the French Open in 2019 and Wimbledon last year – but has yet to capture the trophy in her home country of Australia. However, this future Hall of Famer is the odds-on favorite to hold the trophy in 2022.
Both Polish tennis player Iga Swiatek and Czech player Barbora Krejickova have won the singles titles at the French Open, too. Swiatek won at Roland Garros in 2020 while Krejickova won the French last year in both singles and doubles. Twenty year old Swiatek is the youngest of the select group, currently ranked #8 in the world by the WTA, and is seeded #7 in this year’s Australian Open. Krejickova, twenty-six years of age and born in the Czech Republic is currently ranked #5 in singles in the world, seeded #4 at the AO so Swiatek and Krejickova, like Ash Barty, are not surprises in the quarterfinals this year.
The oldest women’s singles player in the quarterfinals of the AO, thirty-six year old Kaia Kanepi was born in Estonia, is currently ranked #63 in singles by the WTA, and was unseeded in this year’s AO. She’s reached the quarterfinals of the French, Wimbledon and the US Open before but this is her first time to make the second week in Melbourne. She’s a bona fide surprise.
Finally, there are three American women who are in the quarterfinals of the AO in 2022, and the big surprise to me about all of them is that none of their last names is Williams. For as long as I have been watching tennis, and that’s probably more years than most of my friends in cyberspace have been on the earth, the names Venus and Serena have defined the American tennis landscape. Venus won the AO two times – Serena has seven trophies from Melbourne. But these amazing women didn’t make the trip this year.
With gratitude and appreciation for the legacy of the Williams sisters, three American women represent in the second week quarterfinals of a grand slam tennis event in Melbourne. Remember the names of twenty-eight year old Danielle Collins who played varsity tennis at the University of Virginia and was a semi-finalist at the Australian Open in 2019 but is seeded #27 in this year’s grand slam; twenty-seven year old Madison Keys was a semi-finalist at the AO in 2015 but is unseeded at this tournament since her WTA ranking slipped to #51; and nearly twenty-eight year old (b. 02-24-94) Jessica Pegula who made the quarterfinals of the AO last year, too, but was eliminated by another American player Jen Brady, who lost to Naomi Osaka in the final. Brady was unable to participate this year due to a foot injury.
I love to watch tennis matches on all surfaces during the season – the clay courts are my favorites, and I think I heard a random comment on the Tennis Channel those tournaments will begin next week as the Australian Open closes. I have to say I hope the vaccination drama is over and that everyone learned a valuable lesson from it. In sports the name is the game. When I watched the remarkable tennis played by the eight women who are now in the quarterfinals, I almost forgot the hullabaloo that preceded their stellar performances.
I’m not an oddsmaker, but I wouldn’t bet against any of the women in the quarterfinals. I do predict outstanding tennis from them. May the best woman win.
Alize Cornet has already won.
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Stay safe, stay sane, get vaccinated, get boosted and please stay tuned.
For more than 20 years the burden of women’s tennis (oh for heaven’s sake go ahead and admit it men’s tennis, too) in the United States has been carried on the capable shoulders of Venus and Serena Williams. Following their women’s final match against each other in the Australian Open earlier this year, I wrote this:
I am awarding Venus and Serena Williams The Red Man’s Memorial Paw Snaps and Twirls – the highest honor possible for two American women who personify persistence and perseverance to be the very best in their sport and in so doing, prove repeatedly that they are both the images of true champions. Their love of family speaks volumes about their character, and their love of playing tennis is a gift we can all appreciate and be grateful for.
You rock, girls – keep going. Records are made to be broken.
Serena did win her history making 23rd. major at the 2017 Australian Open but made even bigger news when she announced her pregnancy following the tournament. The tennis world gasped at the possibility of a French Open, Wimbledon and even an US Open without its reigning diva who struck fear into the rackets of any player unlucky enough to see her name on Serena’s side of the draw.
Oh, what to do…woe is me…and woe is certainly what the organizers of the major tournaments were saying to themselves as they contemplated their events without the reliable brilliance of Serena Williams.
Now this is why I love sports in general – and tennis in particular. Into the void stepped a brash teenager named Jelena Ostapenko from Latvia who stunned everyone except herself when she marched on to the courts of Roland Garros and became the first unseeded player to win the French Open since 1933. Her idol when she picked up her first tennis racket? Serena Williams.
The Spanish player, Garbine Muguruza, who won the French in 2016, found her championship form again to win Wimbledon in 2017 as she eliminated (guess who?) Venus Williams in that grand slam final on the grass courts of the All England Club.
And speaking of Venus, the 37-year-old sister of Serena who is still playing tennis with a vengeance…she may have lost the Australian Open final to her sister but the remainder of her 2017 season has been victorious as she broke records for longevity at championship levels in tournament after tournament in a sport that demands physical fitness and mental toughness to win at these high levels.
But for all their individual trophies, career earnings, and tangible achievements I believe the legacy of Venus and Serena Williams will be the women who come to play tennis today.
Last night at the US Open both semi-final matches were played by 4 American women – amazing really since 1981 was the last time the United States had 4 women in our own major: Chris Evert, Martina Navratilova, Tracy Austin and Barbara Potter. Evert, Navratilova, and Austin now serve words instead of balls as they offer commentary on the ESPN and Tennis Channels.
One of the four women playing last night was Venus Williams. Her opponent was 24-year-old Sloane Stephens who defeated her in 3 jaw dropping sets and who said at an interview on the court following her victory that she and the rest of women’s tennis owed much of their winning attitudes and power games to the examples of Venus and Serena Williams.
Now the US Open women’s final is set for tomorrow with Stephens playing Madison Keys who defeated Coco Vandeweghe in straight sets. You can bet Pretty and I will be in the bleacher seats watching that final, and we know one thing for sure.
The winner of the US Open on the women’s side this year will be an American, and although her name won’t be Williams, she’ll be standing on their shoulders.
Venus and Serena Williams – Australian Open – 2017
I'll Call It Like I See It 
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