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.
Coco Gauff is now the youngest American to win the US Open since Serena Williams in 1999 and the fourth teenage American in the Open era to win the home Slam. And she did so on the anniversary of both Arthur Ashe’s breakthrough US Open victory in 1968 and Venus Williams‘ maiden title at the event in 2000. (D’Arcy Maine, ESPN.com)
Gauff won her final on the Arthur Ashe Stadium Court of the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, the same court where she watched Venus and Serena Williams play ten years earlier in 2013 at the age of nine when her father took her to see her first US Open tennis tournament. The Williams sisters inspired a new generation of American tennis players for more than two decades – their legacy will be as powerful as their play was on the Ashe Stadium Court.
Serena won her fifth US Open women’s singles championship in 2013
Pretty and I watched Coco overcome losing the first set of the championship match to Aryna Sabalenka who will be the number 1 player in the world tomorrow when the rankings come out by winning the next two sets with power, placement, and perseverance. When I finally could breathe, I told Pretty I was thankful to have lived long enough to witness a new generation of American tennis players who have the potential to fulfill the legacy the Williams sisters created.
Coco wins her first US Open title in 2023
When Gauff was handed her $3 million check during the presentation, she turned to find tennis legend and social justice activist King standing a few feet away from her on the podium and said thank you Billie, for fighting for this.
Congratulations to Coco Gauff not only for her incredible victory on the courts but also for her remarkable understanding of what this victory will mean off the courts as well. I believe the Summer of Coco Express in 2023 is unlimited.
As Serena Williams said in her farewell on-court interview following her loss this year in the US Open, there would be no Serena if it weren’t for her sister Venus. Tennis fans who have followed the professional tennis world for the past twenty-five years echo this sentiment. The two sisters have been prominent figures who not only set new records in the sport but also contributed to changing the evolution of women’s tennis players toward a more powerful game.
Selected Women’s Singles Champions at the US Open:
1999 – Serena Williams (17 years old)*
2000 – Venus Williams
2001 – Venus Williams, Serena Williams Runner-up
2002 – Serena Williams, Venus Williams Runner-up
2008 – Serena Williams
2011 – Samantha Stosur, Serena Williams Runner-up
2012 – Serena Williams
2013 – Serena Williams
2014 – Serena Williams
2017 – Sloane Stephens, Madison Keys Runner-up
2018 – Naomi Osaka, Serena Williams Runner-up
2019 – Bianca Andreescu, Serena Williams Runner-up
2022 – Iga Swiatek, Ons Jabeur Runner-up
*Serena Williams was eliminated in the third round of the 2022 US Open on Arthur Ashe Stadium in the Billie Jean King Tennis Center, Flushing Meadows, Queens, New York. Williams was 24 days shy of her 41st birthday. She holds the most combined major titles with thirty-nine: 23 singles, 14 women’s doubles and 2 in mixed doubles plus four Olympic gold medals representing the United States.
Venus (l.) and Serena Williams win 1st Major Doubles
together at US Open in 1999
Carol Newsome/AFP/Getty Images
2022 US Open Women’s Doubles Runner-up Team
Caty McNally (l.) and Taylor Townsend
photo by Pete Staples/ USA
The Open this year marks, in my opinion as a tennis fan for more than fifty years, the beginning of a changing of the guard in both women and men’s tennis. New names emerged this year – names unfamiliar to the television viewers perhaps but nonetheless those we will need to learn how to pronounce, to watch for, and to embrace as they make their own places in history.
Iga Swiatek won 2022 Women’s Singles at US Open
from Poland – also won French Open in 2020 and 2022
19-year-old Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz won 2022 US Open (l.)
while runner-up was 23 year old Norwegian Casper Ruud
Getty Images
The US Open win for Alcaraz meant he was the youngest man ever to become #1 in the world in the ATP rankings. The year 2022 has not been a total changing of the guard in men’s tennis; Rafa Nadal won the Australian Open and the French Open, Novak Djokovic took the Wimbledon Championships. However, Roger Federer didn’t play at all in 2022, Nadal has many physical issues as well as becoming a father for the first time this fall, and Novak Djokovic has Covid vaccination problems. I do sense a shift in the winds away from the Big Three and their stranglehold on the majors in the Golden Era of men’s tennis for the first two decades of the 21st century. Fasten your seat belts, it’s going to be a bumpy ride.
Carlos said one of the greatest inspirations for him was Serena Williams. He grew up in the generation that watched the magical play of Serena. “She inspired me and a lot of players, you know,” he answered when asked what player on the WTA had inspired him.
“It’s passion, it’s power, it’s everything; she is the GOAT for me, plain and simple,” said Casper Ruud on Serena Williams.
photo of Iga in selfie with Serena at US Open
posted by Dzevad Mesic in Tennis World
“Her legacy is so big. She has shown us that it’s possible to play so good consistently for all these years and also play, and have a great business, and be a mother. She has shown us that there’s hope for that and for us.And with hard work, you can achieve really great things. So Serena is a legend of our sport for sure,” Swiatek said about Williams in a video for the WTA.
The final word belongs to Pretty, of course, who has allowed me to quote her on Serena. “Coco Gauff, Naomi Osaka, and every other kid in America who picks up a racket – male or female – will do it because of Serena Williams.”
There you have it. End of story except to say Serena will always be my Queen of Queens, and it’s hard to say goodbye.
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.
At her press conference following her loss in the 2019 singles finals at Wimbledon, Serena Williams was questioned about why she lost. Although she tried to say her opponent played a brilliant match, the members of the press wouldn’t let it go. They asked her if she thought her lack of match play in 2019 had hurt her, whether her role as a mother took too much time away from her tennis, and finally someone said they heard Billie Jean King wondered if she spent too much time supporting equal rights or other political issues.
Serena’s quick response to that question was “The day I stop supporting equality is the day I die.”
For more than twenty years beginning in 1997 the Williams sisters, Venus and Serena, carried the heavy burden of American tennis (both women and men) on their shoulders; the load was never an easy one. Their two-person dynasty has often been controversial, but their attitudes about the sport they represented matured as their games became more powerful. Their popularity increased as they turned out to be more comfortable with their celebrity, more confident in their games. They grew up in front of a nation and, eventually, the world.
Serena won her history making 23rd. singles 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 a 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.
Venus Williams and her little sister Serena
Never in their 27 professional matches prior to that night were the theater and drama more exciting than in the quarterfinals of the 2015 US Open under the lights in New York City. Approximately 23,000 fans came to the Billie Jean King Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows to watch a match that was more than a game, and the Williams sisters delivered another thrilling exhibition of tennis at the highest level. As the ESPN commentators noted before the match, this was a big-time American sporting event with all the bells and whistles we love in our fascination with sports.
Tom Rinaldi who replaced Dick Enberg as the TV tennis philosopher that adds stories to evoke our emotional attachment to an event, made these remarks prior to the match: “In an individual sport, their stories will always be linked…in our view of the Williams sisters, we see champions sharing a court, a desire to win, and a name. True, one will win – but both have prevailed.”
As a tennis fan who has followed their careers since they first played competitively and in keeping with our celebration of women’s history month, I salute 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 be grateful to appreciate
You rock, girls – keep going. Records are made to be broken.
Stay tuned.
(I have written countless posts with references to the Williams sisters, and I took excerpts from a few of them to write this one.)
I'll Call It Like I See It 
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