The sweet taste of victory at the Australian Open is still fresh in the mouth of American tennis player Madison Keys, who at the age of 29 won her first Grand Slam title by defeating world number one Aryna Sabalenka in the Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne, preventing her from winning her third consecutive title.
With this victory, the Rock Island, Illinois native rose from 14th to 7th in the WTA rankings and is of course one of the new faces of tennis, but nothing is by chance, except for her beginnings as a tennis player, motivated not so much by the sport, but by a white dress
The white dress contrasted by the Wimbledon grass
Keys told Sports Illustrated how she came to be a tennis player and the story could not be more endearing, as years later, the sport allowed her to face and defeat her ‘inspiration’ and one of her greatest professional role models
Madison detailed that her inspiration, her epiphany was seeing Venus Williams on television while playing at the Wimbledon tournament, wearing a white Reebok dress: “I started playing tennis because of the white dress Venus was wearing at Wimbledon and I wanted a white dress to wear at Wimbledon (…) I didn’t know what tennis was and my mother said to me: ‘I’m only going to buy you a tennis dress if you play tennis’“. Madison’s response marked her future, “Great. Great. Sign me up!“
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A decade after that moment, Madison made her WTA tournament debut at the age of 14, and from there began to take shape what in Melbourne was culminated as the top of a dream that now promises greater achievements, because not only did she beat the best in the world, but also two of those who are in her wake: Elena Rybakina and Iga Swiatek, thus demonstrating that she has what it takes to go for the top of the rankings.
Serena Williams already recognizes her as “the best in the world”
Serena Williams, the sister of who was her inspiration, was not exaggerating in calling Madison Keys “the best in the world” when praising her Australian Open victory
The holder of 23 Grand Slam titles said on her Instagram account: “We just watched Madison Keys, congratulations to her, winning the Australian Open today (…) She invested in herself. She invested in her career, she invested time in tennis and being the best she can be, and today she proved that she is the best in the world by winning the Australian Open”.