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All Eyes on American Pegula after Breakout Year 

Jessica Pegula of the US celebrates victory against Italy's Martina Trevisan during their women's singles match in the final of the United Cup tennis tournament in Sydney on January 8, 2023. (AFP)
Jessica Pegula of the US celebrates victory against Italy's Martina Trevisan during their women's singles match in the final of the United Cup tennis tournament in Sydney on January 8, 2023. (AFP)
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All Eyes on American Pegula after Breakout Year 

Jessica Pegula of the US celebrates victory against Italy's Martina Trevisan during their women's singles match in the final of the United Cup tennis tournament in Sydney on January 8, 2023. (AFP)
Jessica Pegula of the US celebrates victory against Italy's Martina Trevisan during their women's singles match in the final of the United Cup tennis tournament in Sydney on January 8, 2023. (AFP)

A career breakthrough year has all eyes on American Jessica Pegula, who could shake Polish world number one Iga Swiatek's stranglehold on the women's field when the Australian Open main draw begins next week.  

The 28-year-old marched up the rankings in 2022 when she reached the quarter-finals at three majors and toppled four Grand Slam winners en route to picking up her first WTA 1000 title in October at Guadalajara. 

Now number three in the world, Pegula said she's taking this season one step at a time. 

"I don't think I really am putting pressure on myself to duplicate that year because I think it was very special and something that probably won't be duplicated," Pegula told reporters on Sunday. 

"I feel like I have different goals this year. I feel like I kind of am resetting the year... It is a new year and you never know what's going to happen and you never know how you're going to feel."  

While she may not be trying to duplicate her extraordinary 2022 it certainly looked like she could last week, when she cracked the code on Swiatek, steamrolling the thrice major winner 6-2 6-2 at the United Cup semi-final.  

Pegula raced to a stunning 5-0 lead in the first set and kept the momentum up with a series of brilliant returns in the second, leaving the usually poised Swiatek without any answers.  

"I loved the way she stepped up, beating the No. 1 player," said Patrick McEnroe, the brother of John McEnroe and a former doubles Grand Slam winner who is an analyst for ESPN.  

He told reporters that he believes Pegula could possibly even win in Melbourne - if Australia's iconic blue hard courts are playing to her favor.  

"The quickness of the court that she played Iga Swiatek on was a big factor," said McEnroe.  

"Australian Open will be pretty quick, but it's usually not that quick... If the court is a little bit slower, that makes it a little bit harder for her to play that type of penetrating game that she can play so well."  

While she ended 2022 on a rough note as she lost all three of her matches in a demoralizing WTA Finals debut, Pegula's record since Flushing Meadows stands at 10-5, a consistency that twice Grand Slam doubles champion Mary Joe Fernandez praised.  

"I'm really impressed with her improvement, her determination," said Fernandez, who will serve as an ESPN analyst at the major. "She's definitely one to look out for." 

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Keys Upsets Swiatek, to Face Sabalenka in Saturday’s Final

Tennis - Australian Open - Melbourne Park, Melbourne, Australia - January 23, 2025 Madison Keys of the US celebrates winning her semi final match against Poland's Iga Swiatek REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon
Tennis - Australian Open - Melbourne Park, Melbourne, Australia - January 23, 2025 Madison Keys of the US celebrates winning her semi final match against Poland's Iga Swiatek REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon
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Keys Upsets Swiatek, to Face Sabalenka in Saturday’s Final

Tennis - Australian Open - Melbourne Park, Melbourne, Australia - January 23, 2025 Madison Keys of the US celebrates winning her semi final match against Poland's Iga Swiatek REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon
Tennis - Australian Open - Melbourne Park, Melbourne, Australia - January 23, 2025 Madison Keys of the US celebrates winning her semi final match against Poland's Iga Swiatek REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon

When Madison Keys finally finished off her 5-7, 6-1, 7-6 (10-8) upset of No. 2 Iga Swiatek in a high-intensity, high-quality Australian Open semifinal on Thursday night, saving a match point along the way, the 29-year-old American crouched on the court and placed a hand on her white hat.

She had a hard time believing it all. The comeback. What Keys called an “extra dramatic finish.” The victory over five-time Grand Slam champion Swiatek, who'd been on the most dominant run at Melbourne Park in a dozen years. And now the chance to play in her second Grand Slam final, a long wait after being the 2017 US Open runner-up.

“I’m still trying to catch up to everything that’s happening,” said the 19th-seeded Keys, who will face No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka, the two-time defending champion, for the trophy Saturday. “I felt like I was just fighting to stay in it. ... It was so up and down and so many big points."

Just to be sure, Keys asked whether Swiatek was, indeed, one point from victory. Yes, Madison, she was, while serving at 6-5, 40-30, but missed a backhand into the net, then eventually getting broken by double-faulting, sending the contest to a first-to-10, win-by-two tiebreaker.

“I felt like I blacked out there at some point,” Keys said, “and was out there running around.”

Whatever she was doing, it worked. Keys claimed more games in the semifinal than the 14 total that Swiatek dropped in her five previous matches over the past two weeks.

Sabalenka beat good friend Paula Badosa 6-4, 6-2 earlier Thursday. Sabalenka, a 26-year-old from Belarus, can become the first woman since 1999 to complete a threepeat.

"If she plays like this,” the 11th-seeded Badosa said, “I mean, we can already give her the trophy.”

Keys might have something to say about that.

Still, Sabalenka won her first major trophy at Melbourne Park in 2023, and she since has added two more — in Australia a year ago and at the US Open last September.
The last woman to reach three finals in a row at the year’s first Grand Slam tournament was Serena Williams, who won two from 2015-17. Martina Hingis was the most recent woman with a threepeat, doing it from 1997-1999.
“I have goosebumps. I’m so proud of myself,” Sabalenka said.
Swiatek had not lost a single service game since the first round, but was broken three times by Keys in the first set alone and eight times in all.
That included each of Swiatek’s first two times serving, making clear right from the get-go this would not be her usual sort of day. And while Swiatek did eke out the opening set, she was overwhelmed in the second, trailing 5-0 before getting a game.
This was the big-hitting Keys at her very best. She turns 30 next month and, at the suggestion of her coach, former player Bjorn Fratangelo — who also happens to be her husband — decided to try a new racket this season, an effort both to help her with generating easy power but also to relieve some strain on her right shoulder.
It’s certainly paid immediate dividends. Keys is now on an 11-match winning streak, including taking the title at a tuneup event in Adelaide.
She was good enough to get through this one, which was as tight as can be down the stretch.
“At the end, I feel like we were both kind of battling some nerves. ... It just became who can get that final point and who can be a little bit better than the other one,” Keys said. “And I’m happy it was me.”