The first tennis Grand Slam of 2025 is now in the books, and it will be looked back as the one that American Madison Keys will remember forever, because at age 29, she finally broke through to win her very first Slam title. It was a decade ago, in 2015, in this very same tournament that she made her first mark in Slam history by reaching the Semi-Final that year - and she reached the US Open Final in 2017. A full decade later, and the promise and potential she exhibited throughout her career, reaches true, measurable fruition. 

And what a road it was to get to the Aussie Finals, and come out triumphant. From the third round onwards, with the exception of the Quarterfinal, all her matches involved a player seeded way above her. Maddie entered the Oz Open seeded 19, and in the third Round, faced fellow American and No. 10 seed Danielle Collins. Then it was No. 6 Elena Rybakina. There was No. 28 seed Elina Svitolina in the Quarters, but then you had her three set matches against No. 2 seed Iga Swiatek in the Semi’s, then the glorious upset of No. 1 seed and defending champion Aryna Sabalenka in the Finals. 

Another interesting statistic is that in the Open era, Madison has had 46 appearances in Grand Slams before winning a title. She’s third in that list, with only Flavia Pennetta at 49, and Marion Bartoli at 47, having made more appearances. This was truly sweet redemption for Madison and her coach and husband Bjorn Fratangelo. As both Madison and Bjorn have remarked, she had really lost faith in ever winning a Slam title, thinking it had already eluded her, and it was Bjorn and her team who pushed her to still believe. Teenage prodigy finally reaches the zenith would be how to tag this wonderful storyline, for a tennis player who’s always been very popular in the locker room. 

On the Men’s side, there was less drama, as your No. 1 seed Jannik Sinner, confronted the No. 2 seed Alexander Zverev in the Final, and annexed his third Slam title without being truly challenged during the match. Sinner never faced a break point, and while the second set did go to a tiebreak, the result of the match did not seem to really be in doubt. 

What drama there was in the Men’s draw would have to be the Zverev-Novak Djokovic Semi-Final, where after one keenly fought tiebreaker first set, Novak retired. And if there was a match of the tournament on the Men’s side, most observers would point to the match between Novak and Carlos Alcaraz in the Quarter-Finals. 

As it is, Alcaraz hold four Slam titles, having taken the French and Wimbledon of 2024, while Sinner improves on the Australian and US of 2024, by successfully defending his Aussie title in 2025, and now has three Slams. While most sportswriters talk of this Sinner-Alcaraz rivalry, there is the shadow of Sinner’s doping case from last year, and there is a hearing come April. 

Another sidebar story of this Australian Open would be the resurgence of American tennis. If in years past, we would see that more on the Women’s side, this year saw a good number of American men reaching the late stages of the tournament - with Bryan Shelton reaching the Semi-Final stage. But of course, nothing beats Madison Keys taking it all the way to raise the cup. 

What we didn’t get was the chance of Sinner and Sabalenka winning a 3rd consecutive hard court slam together, as they both came through in the Australian and US Open of 2024. For Sinner, it’s the third straight hard court Slam title, and we’re now all curious to watch what unfolds at Roland Garros in May, as the French Open is the next Slam on the calendar.