Aryna Sabalenka dismantles Madison Keys at Indian Wells, advances to final
Revenge was a potent driving force for Aryna Sabalenka on Friday night at Indian Wells, as she exacted a sweet measure of revenge against Madison Keys.
Seven weeks after losing to Keys in a three-set heartbreaker in the Australian Open final, Sabalenka took advantage of a far different version of Keys. Sabalenka dismantled Keys 6-0, 6-1 in 51 minutes.
Sabalenka will face Mirra Andreeva, the 17-year-old Russian, in Sunday’s final. Andreeva, currently the hottest player in women’s tennis, beat Iga Swiatek 7-6(1), 1-6, 6-3 in Friday’s other semifinal.
The match was never close to being in doubt. Keys struggled from the beginning to keep her balls on the court and get them over the net. Sabalenka can be one of the most relentless opponents in the game. She didn’t need to be Friday night.
Keys raised her arms in triumph when she finally won a game. It was a tiny victory in a match with barely any of them.
The loss ended a remarkable winning streak for Keys that began in Adelaide the week before the Australian Open. She won five matches there, seven more at the Australian Open and four more here. After beating Belinda Bencic in the quarterfinals, Keys said she had never felt more confident.
“I think the reality of winning as many matches as I have this early in a season hasn’t ever really happened for me, so I think there is definitely a lot of just kind of confidence from all those wins under your belt,” she said. “I think it kind of gives me the confidence to, in really tight situations, just continue to go for kind of whatever I want to.”
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She did Friday night, but the ball just never came off the strings. And all Sabalenka had to do was keep putting it back on the court until Keys missed.
Ahead of the match, Sabalenka said the loss in Australia was still fresh and raw in her mind.
“It was a tough match,” Sabalenka said in a news conference on Thursday. “She played great there. I didn’t play my best, and I’m really happy that tomorrow I will have (the) opportunity to get this revenge back.”
And she was plenty thankful she had a chance to get it back so quickly. “That’s why I love (this) sport,” she said. “Because if you’re not giving up, if you’re working hard, life will bring you (an) opportunity to improve your mistake you did in the last match.”
Did it ever, and she jumped on it.
“I needed this revenge badly, so I was really focused,” Sabalenka said. “(Keys) kind of lost her rhythm, and she couldn’t play her best tennis. I think that’s why the match went so fast.”
Sabalenka has been painfully honest about how hard it was to get over the Australian Open loss. She was going for a rare third title in a row. There’s a pretty good chance that opportunity won’t come around again.
“I was hungry,” she said. “That Australian Open match was really heartbreaking for me, and I really needed some time to recover after that. And if I would lose today again, it would get in my head, and I didn’t want that to happen. I was really focused, so I was just really hungry to get this win.”
Sunday, the tables will be turned on in Sabalenka. She lost to Andreeva in the French Open quarterfinals in June. But she has already gotten plenty of revenge against her since then. She beat Andreeva twice in Australia in January, first in Brisbane and then in Melbourne in the round of 16 at the year’s first Grand Slam.
“I can say she almost killed me, especially in Melbourne,” Andreeva said. “I’m gonna try to take revenge because I still have nothing to lose.”
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