In a remarkable achievement, American tennis player Madison Keys (featured in the picture) defeated the world number one, Aryna Sabalenka from Belarus, securing her first Grand Slam title – the four major tennis tournaments – at the Australian Open in Melbourne on Saturday (25/1).
Ranked 14th in the WTA (Women’s Tennis Association) rankings, Keys triumphed 2-1 (6/3, 2/6, and 7/5) and clinched her 10th career title. Earlier this year, Keys won the WTA 500 event in Adelaide, Australia.
In addition to the Australian Open title, Madison Keys takes home a prize of 2.1 million dollars (around R$12.39 million). The runner-up, Aryna Sabalenka, will receive 1.1 million dollars (approximately R$6.49 million).
At 29 years old, Keys was the US Open runner-up in 2017. Born on February 17, 1995, in Rock Island, one of the Quad Cities in northwest Illinois, she comes from a background where her father, Rick, was an All-American collegiate basketball player in Division III at Augustana College. She has an older sister named Sydney, and her younger siblings are Montana and Hunter, none of whom play tennis.
Keys’ passion for tennis originated at the age of 4 when she watched Wimbledon on TV. She asked her parents for a outfit like Venus Williams, another American tennis player, and they agreed to buy it if she started playing tennis.